Surgery to Diagnose Cancer

We may perform surgery during the diagnosis phase of your child’s care:

• Surgery for diagnosis. A biopsy is a surgical procedure to confirm a diagnosis of cancer. We remove a small piece of the tumor and send it to our lab. There, expert pathologists with experience in childhood cancer analyze the tissue carefully to determine whether it is cancerous.
• Staging. Sometimes, we may need to perform a procedure in order to stage the cancer. This allows us to determine how advanced the cancer is and if it has spread.

Surgery to Treat Cancer

Surgery is one of the primary treatments for cancer. We may use surgery in a number of different ways to treat your child’s cancer:

• • Primary treatment. Sometimes, surgery may be the only treatment your child needs. This usually depends on the location of the tumor, the type of cancer, and whether it has spread. Your child’s doctor may determine, based on testing, that surgery can effectively remove the tumor.

• Before or after other treatments. Your child’s doctor may decide that surgery itself will not be sufficient treatment. In this case, we may perform surgery before chemotherapy or radiation, in order to shrink or debulk the tumor. This will make the other treatments more effective. We may also perform surgery after chemotherapy or radiation, to remove any remaining cancer cells.
• Palliative surgery. We may use surgery to relieve symptoms and improve your child’s quality of life, even if the surgery cannot treat the cancer itself. If the tumor is pressing on a nerve or bone, causing pain, we can use surgery to relieve those symptoms.

Applicable Conditions

Bone Tumors (in progress)
It needs a team of individuals who are highly skilled and experienced in the treatment of bone tumors, including osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma.

Leukemia (in progress) 
Leukemia is the most common form of pediatric cancer. It affects approximately 3,250 children each year in the US, accounting for about 30 percent of childhood cancers. It can occur at any age, although it is most commonly seen in children between 2 and 6 years of age.

Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma(in progress)
NHL is cancer in the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system is part of the immune system and functions to fight disease and infections.

Melanoma
Skin cancer is a malignant tumor that grows in the skin cells.

Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (in progress)
Our cancer team specializes in treating rare cancers like nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Learn more about its causes and treatments

Brain Tumors
Brain tumors are the most common solid tumors in children.

Rhabdomyosarcoma
Rhabdomyosarcoma is a cancerous tumor that originates in the soft tissues of the body, including the muscles, tendons, and connective tissues.

Germ Cell Tumors
Germ cell tumors are malignant (cancerous) or nonmalignant (benign, noncancerous) tumors that are comprised mostly of germ cells.

Soft Tissue Sarcoma
Soft tissue sarcoma is a type of cancer that grows in soft tissues that support and connect parts of the body.

Neuroblastoma
Neuroblastoma is a cancerous tumor that begins in the nerve tissue of infants and very young children