A surgical oncologist is a specialized surgeon who diagnoses, stages, and treats cancer through operations to remove tumors and affected tissues.
Core Responsibilities
- Tumor Removal (Curative & Debulking): Excisional surgery to remove cancerous tumors completely or reduce their size (debulking) to make other treatments more effective.
- Biopsies and Staging: Performing tissue biopsies to confirm a cancer diagnosis and check how far it has spread.
- Palliative and Reconstructive Care: Relieving symptoms caused by advanced tumors or performing reconstructive surgery after tissue removal.
- Multidisciplinary Coordination: Working closely with medical oncologists (who handle chemotherapy) and radiation oncologists to design comprehensive treatment plans (such as giving chemotherapy before surgery to shrink tumors).
Surgical oncologists have a wide range of responsibilities. These include:
- Doing biopsies to find out if unusual masses or growths are cancerous tumors and explaining the results
- Determining cancer stages
- Working with the rest of the cancer team to plan treatment
- Discussing potential surgical treatments and explaining their benefits and risks
- Explaining what you should do to prepare for surgery and what you can expect afterward
- Treating any surgery complications and overseeing your recovery
- Performing palliative care surgery to ease cancer symptoms