# Radical surgery

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**Radical surgery**, also called **radical dissection**, is [surgery](/source/Surgery) that is more extensive than "conservative" surgery.

In [surgical oncology](/source/Surgical_oncology), radical surgery is surgery intended to remove both a tumor and any [metastases](/source/Metastasis) of it, for purposes of [diagnosis](/source/Diagnosis) or treatment.[1] It typically includes the removal of a tumor or mass and ancillary lymph nodes that may drain the mass, as in [radical mastectomy](/source/Radical_mastectomy).[2] It is opposed to for example [palliative surgery](/source/Palliative_surgery) which is intended for symptom relief rather than complete removal of cancer tissue.

In [histopathology](/source/Histopathology), radicality of tumor excisions is generally defined as the absence of tumor cells in a certain [resection margin](/source/Resection_margin), with the specific margin width varying by tumor type and local guidelines.[3] A non-radical excision may require re-excision.[clarification needed]

## References

1. ["Radical surgery"](https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/radical+surgery). *Farlex medical dictionary*. Retrieved 2019-12-12.

1. [radical dissection - The Free Dictionary](http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/radical+dissection)

1. Schlitter, Anna Melissa & Esposito, Irene (2010). "Definition of Microscopic Tumor Clearance (R0) in Pancreatic Cancer Resections". *Cancers*. **2** (4): 2001–2010. [doi:10.3390/cancers2042001](https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers2042001). [ISSN 2072-6694](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2072-6694). [PMC 3840457](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3840457). [PMID 24281214](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24281214)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Radical surgery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_surgery) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_surgery?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.