Cancer Surgery in Delaware
Nearby Locations We Serve
- Wilmington, DE
- Newark, DE
- Bear, DE
- Dover, DE
- Middletown, DE
- Seaford, DE
- Chester, PA
- West Chester, PA
- Elkton, MD
- Aberdeen, MD
- Woodbury, NJ
- Pennsville, NJ
Over one million people get cancer each year. About 1 out of every 2 American men and 1 out of every 3 American women will have some type of cancer at some point during their lifetime. Anyone can get cancer at any age; but about 77% of all cancers are diagnosed in people age of 55 and older. Cancer can be found in Americans of all racial and ethnic groups, but the rate of cancer occurrence varies from group to group.
Today, millions of people are living with cancer or have been cured of the disease. The sooner a cancer is found and the sooner treatment begins, the better a patient's chances are of a cure. That's why early detection of cancer is such an important weapon in the fight against cancer.
Screening tests are very important for finding cancers at an early stage when they are most treatable. Screening can prevent cancers of the cervix, colon, and rectum by allowing doctors to take out pre-cancerous tissue before it becomes cancer. Screening can also detect cancers of the breast, colon, rectum, cervix, prostate, oral cavity, and skin at early stages. For most of these cancers, early detection has been shown to reduce the number of deaths caused by cancer. CHRIAS’s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center offers genetic cancer testing and other screening tests including mammograms and MRI.
If an abnormality is detected, your doctor will want to perform a biopsy. Keep in mind that not all lumps and breast abnormalities are malignant. One of the biopsy procedures that CHRIAS uses is the stereotactic biopsy. Stereotactic biopsy is a minimally invasive, image-guided procedure performed by a radiologist. A local anesthetic is used during the procedure to numb the place where the biopsy needle will be inserted and several stereotactic pairs of x-ray images will be taken. Then a very small prick is made in the skin. The radiologist inserts the needle to the location of the lump or abnormality while using x-ray imaging. Tissue samples are then removed using either a core needle biopsy or a vacuum-assisted device (VAD). Once the radiologist obtains the cell sampling, then the needle will be removed and a final set of images will be taken. The biopsy is then complete and no sutures are needed.
Cancer Procedures
Depending on the type of cancer, the stage of the cancer, and other factors such as your age, health status, and personal preferences, there is a number of treatment choices. The three major types of treatment for cancer are surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Depending on the type and stage of the cancer, two or more of these types of treatment may be combined at the same time or used after one another. Surgery is the oldest form of cancer treatment. It also plays a key role in the process of diagnosing cancer and finding out how far it has spread.
The surgeons at CHRIAS typically perform cancer surgery laparoscopically using minimally invasive techniques.
