POTENTIALLY CURATIVE SURGERY

Here is a self-evident, but very important fact. Surgery can only cure you if all of your cancer is removed. What circumstances are necessary for complete removal to be possible? The primary cancer must be confined to a part of the body that can safely be partly or completely removed. The primary cancer must not have extended directly into surrounding organs that cannot be removed. If it has spread through the lymph system, it must be possible to remove, preferably all in one piece, the primary cancer and the involved nodes. The cancer must not have spread through the blood system at all. How can we be as sure as possible, before operating, whether or not complete removal is feasible? First, we will look only at feasibility. Later we will consider desirability, that is, whether the cost/benefit balance is in favour of the surgery.

*236/40/1*