SURGERY

If your doctor has reason to suspect that you may have cancer,you are likely to be referred initially to a surgeon.This is partly because some kind of surgical prosedure is very often required to make a definitive diagnosis and partly because surgery is the best treatment or the best initial treatment for many types of cancer.
Where cancer is discovered its extent may also be established during an operastin and this sometimes an important aim of the prosedure.Examples include armpit lymph node removeal(axillary dissection or clearance) for women who are undergoing surgery for breast cancer and a thorough inspection of abdominal cavity for ovarian cancer.

WHY SURGERY MIGHT BE RECOMMENDED??????????
Since surgery is used in the diagnostic,tretment and posttreatment phases of cancer management your primary physician or oncologist might suggest surgery in variaty of circumstances.
In general there have 8 reasons whay surgery might be recomended.
a.To prevent or lower the risk of developing cancer.
b.To diagnose or stage the disease.
c.To remove the primary tumor.
d.To remove other tumors.
e.To relieve symptons.
f.To reconstruct or rehabilitate.
g.To suport chemotherapy and radiationtherapy.
h.To treat comlication.

SURGICAL TERMS
A range of special terms is used to refer to surgical prosedures and some of these are encounterd in the context of cancer treatment.These are the principal ones:
a.Resection;
The removal of tumour or organ,words ending in ectomy mean the same thing.
For example removal of a lung lobe containing a cancer may be called a Pulmonary Lobectomy, and
removal of a cancer containing prostate gland a prostatectomy.

b.Radical'
In addition to cutting out the obvious tumour.This involves the removal tissue near or connected to the
tumour or organ involved eith the aim of doing everything possible to get rid of every last cancer cell.

c.Words Ending in Ostomy
When one of the body's internal tubes is blocked by a tumour or has to be removed,the surgeon may
need to bypass the obstruction and create an inlet or outlet by joining the tube to an artifial opening
made in the skin.This called a tracheostomy.
Example joining the windpipe or trchea to the overlying skin,joining the large bowel or colon to a stoma
in the abdominal skin.This called a colostomy.

d.Stoma
An artificial opening in the skin to allow the contents of the underlying tube to exit the body.
Example after a colostomy a bag will be fiied over the stoma to collect the bowel contents.Modern
designs enable the great majority of people who undergo this procedure to lead virtually normal lives.