How Long does Cancer Surgery Last
The question how long does cancer surgery last is not a simple one to answer. The surgical procedure itself will usually take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. But the procedure itself is usually only the beginning. Apart from the fact that more than one operation may be needed before the patient is completely free of the disease, additional post-operation therapies may be required, or they may be recommended by your doctor and have to be done. The entire process from diagnosis to convalescence may eventually take years!
Pre-Operation Treatment
Usually this will involve testing to establish the extent of the disease and how far it has spread to other parts of the body. The surgeon will also need to establish your state of health and the condition of essential organs of your body. All this is essential to ensure a successful outcome of the surgical procedure.
Even after a successful operation your doctor may recommend additional treatment to ensure that the cancer does not return – what the doctors call adjuvant therapy. Adjuvant therapy is designed to suppress any residual condition that could result in the cancer growing again after the surgery. The additional therapy will be in the form of chemotherapy (using anti-cancer chemicals), radiation therapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy or targeted therapy.
But none of these therapies are completely harmless to the body and sometimes the side effects they cause may outweigh the benefits with some cancers. A few types of cancer can benefit from this additional therapy however, for example breast cancer and colon cancer. Before agreeing to take additional therapy after the surgery you need to study the benefits and risks involved with your doctor to determine if this additional therapy is really appropriate for you, or even necessary.
Recovering from Surgery
Apart from a few minor out-patient operations most surgical procedures are usually done with the patient under anaesthesia. After the surgery the patient may need to spend some time in post anaesthesia care in a unit at the hospital. And in some worst case scenarios after the surgery the patient may have to be admitted into the intensive care unit.
If the surgery, as usually happens, involves an incision this is something else that you may need to worry about. Depending on your age and the state of your health prior to the surgery the surgical scar may take quite some time to heal, and besides this is a time when complications could arise and full functionality may take months if not years to return.
Given all these factors it is hard to answer the question how long does cancer surgery last. Before the surgical procedure your surgeon may tell you it will be over in an hour and the procedure would definitely usually be done in that time. But then the guesswork really begins. Most cancers have no cure and a surgical intervention is usually only the beginning of a long journey in the fight against the disease.