Surgery is important in both the diagnosis and the treatment of cancer.
Before making a treatment recommendation, your physician may need a biopsy of your tumor. A biopsy is a procedure in which a piece of tumor is removed by a needle or an incision. This procedure may be done by a surgeon or another physician. The tumor specimen is sent to a pathologist who examines the tumor under a microscope and provides your physician with a diagnosis. Surgical removal of an entire tumor can be attempted when the tumor is confined to a specific area of the body.