Cancer surgery
During your cancer journey, entrust your surgical care to the experienced team at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, part of Montage Health.
Why do I need surgery?
Your doctors may use surgery to:
- Diagnose cancer through a biopsy, which involves removing some suspicious cells with a needle or minor surgical procedure and then examining them in a lab
- Stage cancer (see how far it’s spread) by removing your lymph nodes or other tissue to check it in a lab
- Treat cancer by taking out a tumor and sometimes the organ or tissue it’s in
- Reconstruct part of your body or skin after cancer treatment
If surgery is part of your treatment plan, you may also have chemotherapy or radiation afterward to kill any remaining cancer cells.
Surgical treatments
Depending on your type of cancer, you may benefit from one of these procedures:
- Breast cancer surgery – Removes a tumor (lumpectomy) or the entire breast (mastectomy)
- Colectomy, or colon resection – Takes out all or part of the colon (large intestine) to treat colon cancer
- Gynecologic surgery – Removes all or part of a cancerous female sex organ, such as the cervix, ovaries, or uterus
- Lung cancer surgery – Takes out a pulmonary tumor and sometimes part of the lung
- Mohs surgery – Eliminates skin cancer and is 98 percent effective in treating basal cell carcinoma
- Urologic surgery – Removes all or part of a cancerous organ in the urinary tract or male reproductive system, such as the bladder, kidney, or prostate
Less invasive approach
If you need surgery for gynecologic or urologic cancer, your physician may use robotic surgical technology to do your procedure. The surgical robot’s “hands” bend and rotate further than human hands, which allows surgeons to treat you through smaller incisions. This minimally invasive approach lets you recover faster, with less pain and scarring.
Same-day surgery
Ask your doctor if you’ll have outpatient surgery, which means you’ll be able to go home the same day as treatment. Learn how to prepare for same-day surgery.
