Surgery is a common treatment for cancer. It is mostly performed to remove the malignant tumour and end the disease. But it’s only superficial information.
Cancer surgeries are extremely complex. The cancer surgeons at the best cancer hospital in West Bengal require patience and excellence to perform surgeries which often take hours and involve delicate work. Surgeons cautiously navigate around blood vessels and organs to avoid damaging healthy organs and tissues. They are highly concerned about pain, scarring and other post-operative complications. For example, head and neck cancer surgeries are extremely complicated. Removing the cancerous tumour is not enough; surgeons also have responsibility to ensure that surgery does not impede normal functioning like speaking and swallowing.
Nearly all cancer patients, especially those in the early stages, with a solid tumour or a cluster of tumours, undergo surgeries to recover from the disease. Commonly, surgery is a first-line treatment for several forms of malignancy. It may precede (adjuvant) or follow (neo-adjuvant) treatment like either chemotherapy or radiation therapy and sometimes both.
Depending on the objective, cancer surgeries are of different types. Some surgeries are done to remove cancer whereas some are performed for diagnosis and staging. Sometimes, the goal is to improve a patient’s quality of life.
The followings are different types of cancer surgery:
Ø Curative surgery
Ø Diagnostic surgery
Ø Prophylactic surgery
Ø Reconstructive surgery
Ø Palliative surgery
Ø Debulking surgery
Ø Supportive surgery
Curative Surgery: It is performed to leave no trace of the disease in the patient’s body. Curative surgery can be performed when the tumour is localized or has metastasized to nearby glands to distant organs. However, surgeons cannot tell if microscopic cancer cells have been removed. Only the visible, tangible tumour is removed. Hence, surgery is often followed by adjuvant therapy.
Diagnostic Surgery: A biopsy, as a part of cancer treatment in Kolkata involves removing a sample of a tumour to confirm malignancy and even determine the type and stage of the cancer. It may be an outpatient procedure like fine needle biopsy (FNAC) or a major procedure requiring anaesthesia and stitches.
These days, biopsies are a routine test during other types of surgery. It is also done to understand the progression of cancer. If cancer is suspected to have invaded nearby tissues, lymph nodes are also biopsied to confirm the extent of the disease and decide the treatment.
Prophylactic Surgery: Some people with a family history of cancer opt for prophylactic surgery to find out if they inherit the same cancer-causing gene.
Reconstructive Surgery: This surgery is performed to correct the disfigured part of a cancer patient’s body that has gone wrong due to the disease or during the surgical procedure to remove it.
Palliative Surgery: This surgery is done to relieve a patient of pain and discomfort, thereby improving his/her quality of life.
Debulking Surgery: The procedure is performed to remove the visible mass or shrink the size of the tumour. It is usually done before adjuvant therapy.
Supportive Surgery: It is performed to insert ports, catheters or devices to enable patients to get medicines directly into their bloodstream. Supportive surgery eliminates the need for receiving repeated injections.