Approximately 60% of people with cancer will have surgery to cure, prevent, or reduce their symptoms (MD Anderson Cancer Center). Most of the time, when one undergoes surgery to treat cancer, it is normally added to other treatments such as chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. There are many different types of surgery to relieve many different symptoms or stages. Some examples of these are curative, preventive, diagnostic, staging, reduction and supportive surgery, to name a few. The treatment is not as painful as some other treatments, but it still takes a toll on the body. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayOne type of surgical treatment would be curative surgery. In curative surgery, the surgeon would remove the cancerous tissue or tumor from your body laparoscopically or invasively. The healthy tissue surrounding the cancerous tissue is called the margins. Although this type of surgery seems the simplest, it is not. This is actually one of the most difficult, because if the surgeon fails to remove all the cancerous tissue, then the cancer could grow back unsuccessfully. Unfortunately, this type of treatment cannot be used for widespread cancer because it would be too hard on your body. But if you had to have radiation or chemotherapy to locate the cancer, then you might have surgery. Another treatment is preventive surgery, which is basically when you don't have cancerous tissue or cells yet but want to prevent it. . Preventive surgery may also be called prophylactic surgery. An example of this is that women with a higher risk of developing breast cancer due to their history will sometimes have their breasts removed to avoid contracting cancer cells. Unfortunately, sometimes the patient does not give consent because they are concerned about their reproductive system and visual appearance. Unfortunately, this is one of the downsides of this treatment, the other is that sometimes if you only remove certain tissue, cancer can still develop if the surgeon misses potentially cancerous tissue. Diagnostic surgery may be used to see if your growth is malignant. or benign. A malignant tumor is a cancerous tumor, but if the growth is benign, it is not cancerous. First, if the doctor decides to opt for this quick treatment, he or she will laparoscopically take a sample (or the whole sample depending on the size) of the tumor. Then they would use a microscope to see if the cells are cancerous, this is called a pathology test. “Microscopic examination of biopsy samples is the ideal way to make a positive diagnosis of cancer (National Cancer Institute).” Surgical staging can show doctors how far along your cancer is. A doctor may perform staging surgery to see if you need further treatments. An example might be if an oncologist thought the cancer was controlled, then performed staging surgery and realized the cancer was spreading quickly. Then the doctor can create a treatment package to improve the chances of recovery. During surgery, the surgeon may take a sample of the tumor or tissue to assess the extent of the cancer. Reduction surgery is used to remove some of the tissue.