Surgical oncology: Difference between revisions

<section begin="oncology" />'''Surgical oncology''' refers to the use of surgery in [[cancer therapy]]. Surgery is a major modality in cancer, as it can be used for multiple purposes:

Debulking or cytoreduction refers to surgically removing as much of a tumour as possible, in cases where the whole tumour cannot be removed. Debulking can be performed palliatively, to increase survival, or with curative intent, by increasing the penetration of adjuvant radiation and/or chemo into the tumour. It is performed in ovarian cc, endometrial cc, etc.

En-bloc resection refers to removing the entire tumour and a continous layer of healthy tissue around together.

Surgical margin is the rim of the tissue removed during surgery. During surgery, the margin of the removed tissue is marked with ink. While the surgeons wait the pathologist will make frozen slides of the removed tissue and examine it histologically. By using the ink as a reference, the pathologist can determine whether the surgery removed all of the tumour or not. If the surgical margin is clear/negative/clean, there are no tumour cells at the margin, so further treatment is usually not needed. If the surgical margin is positive, more surgery or other adjuvant treatment is needed to ensure that no tumour cells remain

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