Treatments and Services

Chemotherapy is a medication or combination of medications used to treat cancer. Chemotherapy can be given orally (as a pill) or injected intravenously (IV).

If the physician performs a sentinel lymph node biopsy, and cancer is found in the sentinel nodes, it is likely a lymph node dissection will be advised to remove the other lymph nodes in the area.

Some breast cancer patients may need lymph node surgery. Lymph node surgery is performed for staging purposes to find out whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes under the arm (axillary lymph nodes). One or more lymph nodes may be removed for examination under a microscope in one of two ways:  an axillary lymph node dissection or a sentinel lymph node biopsy.

A biopsy is when your doctor removes a small piece of tissue from an organ, muscle, or growth. Biopsies of your organs or muscles can be used for to diagnose various conditions or abnormalities, including cancers, inflammatory diseases, and more. In some cases, a biopsy may remove the entirety of the abnormal tissue.

Percutaneous ethanol injection uses ethanol, a type of alcohol, to destroy cancer cells. The physician guides the ethanol directly into the tumor using ultrasound. Generally, this procedure only requires local anesthesia. If the patient has multiple tumors, it may require general anesthesia.

Radiation uses special equipment to deliver high-energy particles, such as x-rays, gamma rays, electron beams or protons, to kill or damage cancer cells. Radiation can be delivered internally through seed implantation or externally using linear accelerators.

Robotic surgery is a type of surgery where the surgeon uses very small tools attached to a robotic arm. The surgeon controls the arm and the tools with a computer.

Tumor ablation is an image-guided, minimally invasive treatment used to destroy cancer cells. In tumor ablation, a physician inserts a specially equipped needle (probe) into the tumor or tumors guided by computed tomography (CT). Once the probe is in place, energy is transmitted through it and into the tumor.

The surgeon removes (resects) some or all of a tumor.