What other techniques are used in cancer surgery?

Many other types of surgical methods for treating cancer and precancerous conditions exist, and investigators continue to research new methods. Some common types of cancer surgery include:

• Cryosurgery. During this type of surgery, your doctor uses very cold material, such as liquid nitrogen spray or a cold probe, to freeze and destroy cancer cells or cells that may become cancerous, such as irregular cells in your cervix that could become cervical cancer.
• Electrosurgery. By applying high-frequency electrical currents, your doctor can kill cancer cells, for example, in your mouth or on your skin.
• Laser surgery. Laser surgery, used to treat many types of cancer, uses beams of high-intensity light to shrink or vaporize cancer cells.
• Mohs surgery. Useful for removing cancer from certain sensitive areas of the skin, such as near the eye, and for assessing how deep a cancer goes, this method of surgery involves carefully removing cancer layer by layer with a scalpel. After removing a layer, your doctor evaluates it under a microscope, continuing in this manner until all the abnormal cells have been removed and the surrounding tissue shows no evidence of cancer.
• Laparoscopic surgery. A surgeon uses a laparoscope to see inside your body without making large incisions. Instead, several small incisions are made and a tiny camera and surgical tools are inserted into your body. The surgeon watches a monitor that projects what the camera sees inside your body. The smaller incisions mean faster recovery and a reduced risk of complications. Laparoscopic surgery is used in cancer diagnosis, staging, treatment and symptom relief.
• Robotic surgery. In robotic surgery, the surgeon sits away from the operating table and watches a screen that projects a 3-D image of the area being operated on. The surgeon uses hand controls that tell a robot how to maneuver surgical tools to perform the operation. Robotic surgery helps the surgeon operate in hard-to-reach areas.

• Natural orifice surgery. Natural orifice surgery is currently being studied as a way to operate on organs in the abdomen without cutting through the skin. Instead, surgeons pass surgical tools through a natural body opening, such as your mouth, rectum or vagina.

  As an example, a surgeon might pass surgical tools down your throat and into your stomach during natural orifice surgery. A small incision is made in the wall of the stomach and surgical tools pass into the abdominal cavity in order to take a sample of liver tissue or remove your gallbladder.

  Natural orifice surgery is experimental, and few operations have been performed this way. Doctors hope it can reduce the risk of infection, pain and other complications of surgery.

Cancer surgery continues to evolve. Researchers are investigating other surgical techniques with a goal of less invasive procedures.