The following section is on a treatment of cancer, it is not a guide on how to perform it, nor is it a guide as to the side effects or how to prepare for treatment. The following section is designed to give readers an in-depth understanding of the treatment, how it functions, and why it functions. Please note that researchers are constantly working to find new treatments or improve current ones, this means the subject(s) discussed below are likely to change as medicine improves.
Surgery is an ancient practice used to treat all sorts of illnesses. In modern treatment of cancer there are a variety of different ways to perform surgery other than the traditional surgeon and scalpel. Modern day surgery can include: extreme cold to freeze and kill tissue, lasers to cut away tissue, modern robots controlled by surgeons, needles that deliver electrical pulses to kill tissue; each of these are just other ways of performing the same task of removing/killing cancerous tissue. Below are a few main categories of the goals of these surgeries in the context of cancer.
Curative: this is a surgery to remove the entirety of the cancer, hopefully curing a person entirely. This treatment can often be a favoured option for patients as it can be more easily understood and often has less unpredictable side effects than other more complex treatments. However not all cancers can be cured with surgery. The main issue is that surgeons must cut away a layer of healthy tissue around the tumor as well in order to ensure cancerous cells are not left behind. This is not always possible in specific areas of the body, many places in the body have small amounts of tissue that are essential to bodily function, such as the walls of arteries, heart muscle, spinal cord, etc. In some surgeries it may simply be that in order to get the layer of healthy tissue the patients quality of life would be greatly impacted making other treatments far more favourable. Thus if cancer grows close to any vital tissue it would be impossible to extract all of it.
Diagnostic: Diagnostic surgery is most commonly used to take samples from tumors for testing. Sometimes surgery could be used for exploration and mapping of tumors however in modern day this is more commonly done with scans.
Palliative: Palliative refers to treatment aimed at alleviating symptoms and improving quality of life without tackling the root cause. Generally palliative care can involve processes such as debulking, which is the process of surgically removing mass of the tumor. However palliative surgeries can also be far more broad, cancer can affect every organ in the body and cause unique symptoms, understanding surgeries for dealing with each symptom is extraordinarily lengthy and thus will not be explored in depth here.
Note: The word palliative can cause intense emotional reactions due to the use of it in palliative care. However palliative care refers to when the entire care plan is palliative, this is a heavy and personal decision that can be decided by the patient and medical staff. Palliative care is different from palliative surgery as palliative surgery can be used in a curative plan. For example, a tumor beginning to press on a nerve causing discomfort could be debulked in palliative surgery to alleviate discomfort while medical staff still work for curing the cancer entirely. In short it is important to distinguish between palliative care and surgery, if confused about a personal case consult your doctor.
Prophylactic: Prophylactic means treatment used to prevent an illness as opposed to cure one. In the context of surgery for cancer this is most commonly used when people are genetically more likely to develop cancer in specific areas. Inherited genetics is covered more in depth in the causes of cancer section. Prophylactic surgeries for cancer usually involve removing the organ/tissue that is more likely to develop cancer. Common examples include mastectomies and hysterectomies.
| Surgery. www.cancer.nsw.gov.au. Accessed July 12, 2026. https://www.cancer.nsw.gov.au/general-cancer-information/diagnosis-and-treatment/treatment/types-of-treatment/surgery |