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Surgical oncology
 
 
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Surgical oncology is the branch of surgery
Surgery

Surgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason....
 which focuses on the surgical management of malignant neoplasms (cancer
Cancer

Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cell display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis . These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, do not invade or metastasize....
).

Whether surgical oncology constitutes a medical specialty per se is the topic of a heated debate. Today, some would agree that it is simply impossible for any one surgeon to be competent in the surgical management of all malignant disease. However, there are currently 14 surgical oncology fellowship training programs in the United States that have been approved by the Society of Surgical Oncology.






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Surgical oncology is the branch of surgery
Surgery

Surgery is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance, or sometimes for some other reason....
 which focuses on the surgical management of malignant neoplasms (cancer
Cancer

Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cell display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis . These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, do not invade or metastasize....
).

Whether surgical oncology constitutes a medical specialty per se is the topic of a heated debate. Today, some would agree that it is simply impossible for any one surgeon to be competent in the surgical management of all malignant disease. However, there are currently 14 surgical oncology fellowship training programs in the United States that have been approved by the Society of Surgical Oncology. While many general surgeons are actively involved in treating patients with malignant neoplasms, the designation of "surgical oncologist" is generally reserved for those surgeons who have completed one of the approved fellowship programs. However, this is a matter of semantics, as many surgeons who are thoroughly involved in treating cancer patients may consider themselves to be surgical oncologists.

Most often, surgical oncologist refers to a general surgical oncologist (cf. General Surgery
General surgery

This page is about the surgical specialty. For the goregrind band, see General Surgery General surgery, despite its name, is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal organs, e.g....
), but thoracic surgical oncologists, gynecologic oncologists and so forth can all be considered surgeons who specialize in treating cancer patients.

The importance of training surgeons who sub-specialize in cancer surgery lies in evidence, supported by a number of clinical trials, that outcomes in surgical cancer care are positively associated to surgeon volume -- i.e. the more cancer
Cancer

Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cell display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis . These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, do not invade or metastasize....
 cases a surgeon treats, the more proficient he becomes, and his or her patients experience improved survival rates as a result. This is another controversial point, but it is generally accepted -- even as common sense -- that a surgeon who performs a given operation more often, will achieve superior results when compared with a surgeon who rarely performs the same procedure. This is particularly true of cancer resections such as pancreaticoduodenectomy
Pancreaticoduodenectomy

A pancreaticoduodenectomy, pancreatoduodenectomy, Whipple procedure, or Kausch-Whipple procedure, is a major surgery involving the pancreas, duodenum, and other organs....
 (Whipple procedure) for pancreatic cancer, and gastrectomy
Gastrectomy

A gastrectomy is a partial or full surgical removal of the stomach....
 with extended (D2) lymphadenectomy
Lymphadenectomy

Lymphadenectomy consists of the surgical removal of one or more groups of lymph nodes. It is almost always performed as part of the Surgical oncology....
 for gastric cancer.

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