Cancer is not a single entity, but collection of a multitude of disease processes, unique in their sites of origin, rates of growth, patterns of spread and their final outcomes. Abnormal and uncontrolled growth is the only thing they all have in common.
Traditionally, surgery has been regarded as one of the most important weapons in the fight against cancer, and it’s status is still unchanged. But rather than trying to remove more and more to push for a possible cure, conserving functioning tissue with out compromising cure has become the key to successful cancer surgery.
The power of conservatism has slowly spread across the fields of surgery in breast cancer, bone and soft tissue cancer, cancer of the kidney and urinary bladder, laryngeal cancer and rectal cancer now. Surgical steps have become more or less standardises, and due care is exercised to harvest enough number of lymph nodes to ensure oncological adequacy. The evolution of surgeons who exclusively perform cancer surgeries is a step towards the right direction, so is the recognition that results of treatment and better with high volume centres. Rightly done surgery is now recognised as an important prognostic factor in many cancers. The surgeon’s role has become even more critical as an active member of multidisciplinary team in present day cancer management.
