Surgery Clinical Resource Area 

Surgery is a medical procedure that involve cutting the body open to remove a tumor or repair an injury. Surgery often is used initially to remove tumors. Depending on the type of cancer, surgery may be performed one time or in several stages. Reconstructive surgery also may be used at this time or later in the treatment process.

Ablation methods (local methods used to destroy a tumor without removing it)  at times are used in conjunction with an operation or percutaneously with interventional radiology. These techniques include cryosurgery, radio frequency ablation, ethanol ablation and microwave thermotherapy. Cryosurgery is a technique for freezing and killing abnormal cells. Radio frequency ablation is a procedure that uses radio waves to heat and destroy abnormal cells. Microwave thermotherapy uses microwaves to heat and destroy tumors. Ethanol ablation consists of injecting alcohol into a tumor to kill the cells.

ONS Special Interest Groups (SIG) Virtual Communities

Surgical Oncology