9.+Making+Treatment+Decisions

Making treatment decisions. (2001). Retrieved August 26, 2009, from American Cancer Society Web site: [] Surgery-
 * “** **When a surgeon has to cut into the body to operate, it is called //invasive surgery//.”**

**“** **Surgery offers the greatest chance for cure for many types of cancer, especially those that have not spread to other parts of the body. Most people with cancer will have some type of surgery.”**

“**Some types of surgery are very minor and may be called procedures, while others are much bigger operations.”

“Preventive surgery is done to remove body tissue that is likely to become cancer (malignant), even though there are no signs of cancer at the time of the surgery. For example, pre-cancerous polyps may be removed from the colon.”

“Staging surgery is done to find out how much cancer there is and how far it has spread. The physical exam and the results of lab and imaging tests are used to figure out the //clinical stage// of the cancer.”**

“Of course, there are risks with almost everything we do in life. What is important is whether or not the expected benefits outweigh the possible risks.”

“Doctors have been performing surgeries for a very long time. Advances in surgical techniques and in our understanding of how to prevent infections have made modern surgery safer and less likely to damage healthy tissues than it has ever been.”