Cancer surgery: Physically removing cancer

The prospect of cancer surgery may make you feel anxious. Put your mind at ease by learning more about cancer surgery and how and why it's used.
Cancer surgery — an operation to repair or remove part of your body to diagnose or treat cancer — remains the foundation of cancer treatment. Your doctor may use cancer surgery to achieve any number of goals, from diagnosing your cancer to treating it to relieving the symptoms it causes. Cancer surgery may be your only treatment, or it may be supplemented with other treatments, such as radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and biological therapy.

read more at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cancer-surgery/CA00033