Surgery is frequently needed in the treatment of cancer. A surgical biopsy is often required to determine whether or not a person has cancer, and surgery is often the means by which a tumor is removed. While many cancers are treated with surgery alone, in other cases surgery may be used along with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.
A wide range of surgical specialties are represented at the Crozer-Keystone hospitals, including general, colorectal, gynecologic, head and neck, neurological, ophthalmologic, orthopedic, plastic, thoracic and urologic surgery. Our board-certified surgeons share a commitment to provide the highest quality of care and are experienced in the latest and least invasive surgical techniques for treating cancer.
Many people treated for cancer undergo surgery for the placement of a special intravenous line for use during treatment with chemotherapy, or for the placement of radioactive material (brachytherapy) to help treat certain types of cancers. Plastic surgery is sometimes done at the same time as cancer treatment, or following cancer treatment, to restore the appearance of a region altered by cancer surgery. For example, plastic surgery can be particularly helpful to women who undergo a mastectomy for the treatment of breast cancer.