Surgical Oncology: Quality of Life
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How we help you manage side effects of treatment
While removing malignant tumors is the primary objective, the surgical oncology team also understands the importance of quality of life.
Through various procedures, your surgical oncologists strives to help you relieve pain (e.g., palliative surgery), maintain dignity (e.g., reconstructive surgery), and preserve normal function (e.g., limb-sparing surgery).
When asked about his goal for patients, Dr. Reisner says: “I aim to improve the lives of my patients. This may be by contributing to the healing of the disease, or by lessening its impact.”
For example, Eastern’s surgical oncology team commonly inserts tunneled catheters to help control pleural effusion. Pleural effusion is defined as the abnormal accumulation of fluids that result when a tumor has spread to the pleura or abdomen. This procedure can make you more comfortable by preventing you from feeling full all of the time so you can maintain your nutritional status.
At CTCA, we understand that caring for you means caring for all of you, not just the part of the body affected by the disease.
Throughout your treatment, you will also receive complementary medicine therapies, such as nutrition therapy, naturopathic medicine, pain management, oncology rehabilitation, mind-body medicine, and spiritual counseling. These therapies can help reduce cancer-related fatigue, functional impairments, and other side effects so you can enjoy a good quality of life.
