Diagnostic Surgery for detecting suspicious tumor

Diagnostic surgery is a type of surgical method often used for obtaining a biopsy, or a tissue sample for diagnosing the presence of cancer. This helps in detecting and confirming the presence of cancer. This involves physically removing a part or whole of the suspicious tumor and its examination under a microscope.

After careful examination of the biopsy, the suspicion of cancer can be confirmed. A diagnostic surgery may vary depending on the organ to be biopsied. Some may require major surgery, while some may not even require local anesthesia. This type of surgery is majorly used for detecting the presence and detect the type of cancer.

The following types of procedures are mainly adopted to do diagnostic surgery

– Core needle biopsy

– Incisional biopsy

– Excisional biopsy

– Fine needle aspiration biopsy

Diagnostic surgery can be done using minimally invasive surgical techniques or using traditional open surgery. Doctors can also take a biopsy during endoscopic procedures or using needles to withdraw cells. But there are some uncertainties in this procedure. Though a positive diagnosis indicates a definite presence of cancer, negative diagnosis can either mean no cancer or can also mean that the specimen was not representative of the tumor.

There are some risks in diagnostic surgery, depending upon the type of biopsy and the type of biopsy technique chosen. Some biopsies like core biopsies, needle biopsies do not show positive results because of the less number of cells extracted from the site. In some rare cases, the needle misses the tumor and extract healthy cells to produce an incorrect diagnosis.