Excisional Biopsy

Cervical cancer is staged clinically. This means that if the tumor is very early and only detected by a biopsy, then a cold-knife cone is performed to determine the depth of tumor invasion and thus the stage. If the patient has a visible lesion, then the tumor is staged based on a pelvic examination. During that examination, the physician is trying to assess tumor size and extent within the pelvis. A chest x-ray is commonly obtained to assure that there is no evidence of spread of disease. Surgery is not routinely used to stage cervical cancer.

There are several different types of breast surgery - the 2 basic categories are lumpectomy and mastectomy. Lumpectomy (also referred to as partial mastectomy) generally refers to removing the breast cancer with a rim of normal surrounding tissue, the margin. Mastectomy refers to removal of the entire breast, and often is accompanied by reconstructive surgery. With both lumpectomy and mastectomy, usually a sentinel lymph node biopsy is performed - a few underarm lymph nodes are removed to confirm if the cancer has spread or not.

For benign breast tumors (not cancer), generally an excisional biopsy is performed - this simply means removal of the breast lump.