Self Instructional Manual for Cancer Registrars - SEER - National ...

OPERATIVE
PROCEDURES
Exploratory_Surgery
Sometimes, cancer of an internal organ may be suspected but the organ may be so located that
direct access to it is possible only with surgery. Exploratory surgery may then be performed to
determine whether or not a cancerous condition exists and the degree to which the cancer may have
affected other organs and structures within the observed area. In most instances, biopsies will be
performed and the material examined histologically.
The exploratory operation may be followed immediately by definitive surgery, or it may reveal
cancer so extensive as to rule out definitive surgery. It may be that by-pass1 surgery is indicated as
a palliative measure. All surgery,whether it is definitive, exploratory, or by-pass surgery, is described
in an operative report.
1by-pass--Surgical formation of a passage (anastomosis) between any two normally distinct spaces
or organs. For example, a shunt to divert blood from one part of the body to the other is a
by-pass. A colostomy to short circuit the GI tract, when there is an obstruction of the colon, is
a by-pass.
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