Surgical oncology is a field of medicine that uses surgery to treat cancer. Its main goal is to find harmful tumors in your body and remove them. Doctors who practice surgical oncology can also see if you have cancer or find out if the disease has spread to other parts of your body. Oncologists are doctors who study, prevent, and treat cancer. They work with your primary care doctor to come up with a treatment plan for you. Surgical oncologists use surgery to improve your condition. Their main job is to remove tumors and nearby tissue that has cancer cells in it. They also do procedures called biopsies that tell if you have cancer and how severe it is.
Surgical oncology can help people during the early stages of cancer or when the condition is more advanced. Some common reasons you might need this type of medicine are:
To prevent cancer. If you have a high risk of getting the disease in a certain part of your body, a surgical oncologist can do an operation to prevent it. They remove tissue in the area that’s precancerous or likely to become cancer. For example, some women who have a very strong family history of breast or ovarian cancer and mutations in genes that are linked with the disease may work with a surgical oncologist to remove their breasts before cancer appears.
To see if you have cancer. When your doctor sees a growth or other signs of a tumor, a surgical oncologist can remove all or part of the tissue. Then, a scientist can study it under a microscope to see if it has cancer cells. This procedure is called a biopsy.
To see how severe it is. Oncologists use surgery to understand how advanced someone’s condition is. They look at the size of a tumor and see if it has spread to other parts of your body, like lymph nodes or other organs.
