Cancer Surgery Risks with Standard Care
Pillar 3: Advanced and Targeted Treatment Options
More Precise Surgery with PET/CT and Advanced Surgical Tools
Standard cancer care uses imprecise diagnostic tools such as ultrasounds, CT scans, and MRIs to gather (incomplete) information about your cancer. And this lack of data hinders your surgeon’s ability to know exactly where your cancer is located and how aggressive it is. Meanwhile, outdated surgical tools cause further impediments to a surgeon’s ability to perform an accurate and precise excision of the cancer. This is not the fault of the surgeon, but rather a reflection of the poor tools they have at their disposal.
- Consequences of standard cancer surgery
Using standard diagnostic and surgical tools limits a surgeon’s ability to perform a successful tumour excision. In standard cancer surgery, through no fault of their own, a surgeon might:
- Excise tissue that’s not cancerous
- Leave cancerous tissue inside your body
- Not be able to perform the surgery
- Be able to perform partial surgery, but not all
Superior Tools Lead to More Precise Surgery
Fortunately, precision oncology greatly improves surgery outcomes for cancer patients by using the most advanced diagnostic tests, targeted treatments, and surgical tools that medical science has to offer.
- Better Cancer Surgery Outcomes with PET/CT
Precision oncology uses the very best imaging tools to identify the exact location of your cancer, as well its level of aggression.
- An enhanced-contrast PET/CT scan will give your surgeon the information to know precisely which tissue to excise (and which to leave alone).
- Since all the cancerous tissue will be removed, there’s a higher likelihood the surgery will be a success.
- And because no unnecessary tissue will be removed, your surgery will also be less risky.
- Studies show that "PET/CT should be performed not only in patients scheduled for surgery to exclude occult metastases, but also to achieve the most minimally invasive excision possible." 50, 71
- Best Cancer Surgery Techniques
Superior surgical tools enable more successful surgery. For example: your tumour might be inoperable with the tools used in standard cancer care, yet the same operation might be quite simple – and even unnecessary – with precision oncology.
- Advanced laser surgical tools, such as the Nico Myriad, allow for more precise surgery with less risk to the patient.
- Neurosurgeon Lawrence Dickinson, MD, at Pacific Brain and Spine (Castro Valley, California) explains: "The Myriad system more efficiently preserves the tumor viability allowing me to culture the cells and develop personalized therapies for my patients. This was not possible with older ultrasonic aspirating technologies."
- The surgical techniques used in precision oncology are far more precise than standard techniques, and lead to higher surgery success rates.
In addition to precision oncology’s superior tools and techniques, its use of targeted treatment increases the chance that your tumour(s) will have shrunk to the point where they become operable, or where surgery is no longer needed.
- Avoid Surgery for Cancer
Because targeted cancer therapies are so successful, it’s possible that you won’t need to have surgery at all.
- When you’re on the correct targeted therapy treatment(s), your tumour(s) might shrink to the point where you no longer need surgery at all.
- We’ve had clients who’d been told by their oncologist they needed surgery – and by the time their scheduled surgery appointment came around, they were able to cancel it because the targeted treatment had shrunk their tumour so much.
- Read our patient success stories to learn more about how CTOAM has helped cancer patients recover without surgery.
- Recover From Cancer with Surgery
Sometimes a tumour is inoperable because it’s located in a particularly difficult place on the body, or the large size of the tumour makes it too risky.
- Targeted treatment can shrink tumours quite quickly, to the point where they become safe to operate on.
- We’ve had clients go from being told to prepare for palliative care to being fully recovered because targeted therapy enabled their tumour to be operated on.
Improve Your Cancer Surgery Success Rate
Precision oncology provides a new, personalized approach to cancer treatment that produces higher survival rates and longer progression-free survival for cancer patients than standard care.
If you or someone you know is facing cancer surgery, please contact our precision oncology specialists today to ensure that you’re receiving the most advanced tools, tests, and treatments that medical science has to offer. Register for a Precision Second Opinion, now to discuss your case in more detail.
