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Cancer treatment-Surgery,radiation,chemotherapy,& biotherapy

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Discuss your understanding of surgical therapy, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and biotherapy related to cancer.

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The solution deals in-depth with the explanation of various cancer treatment options such as surgical therapy, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and biotherapy.

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Surgical therapy: It involves treating illness by removing a particular body tissue. It is one of the main treatments for cancer. Cancer surgery is conducted for various purposes in a cancer patient. Firstly, it can be used for diagnosis. It involves biopsy, where a sample of cells are taken from a tumor (or in some cases the surrounding lymph nodes) and analyzed to determine if they are malignant (cancer cells). There are different types of biopsies such as excisional where the complete tumor and a small amount of surrounding tissue is removed, incisional when the tumor is too big so a portion is removed is removed, and needle biopsies that just aspirate some tissue with the invasiveness of typical surgery. Surgery can also be used as a treatment. If used as a treatment, the goal is to remove the entire tumor and any tissue or lymph nodes that may be affected. Debulking is used when the entire tumor cannot be removed. In this case, as much of the tumor as possible will be removed. When the tumor is smaller, the cancer cells are more active. This actually increases the effectiveness of other therapies such as radiation or chemotherapy. Prophylactic surgery is used in high risk patients (i.e. personal history, strong genetic predisposition) to prevent cancer from developing. A mastectomy or other surgeries may be used for this reason. Palliative surgery is conducted when the cancer cannot be removed completely or cured. Such a type of surgery will still be helpful, as it is used to remove a tumor which reduces its effects, such as blockage, discomfort, relieving pain, and such other complications. Staging is a process which helps the doctors to determine the size of a cancerous tumor, and reveal whether it has spread to other parts of the body. It is done along with surgery to remove a tumor. Such information regarding the stage of cancer will be very helpful to plan further treatment. Reconstructive surgery is done after a cancer surgery to rebuild ...

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