Radical surgery

Radical surgery, also called radical dissection, is a surgery that is more extensive than "conservative" surgery in somewhat manner.^[1]

When it comes to surgical oncology, radical surgery is surgery involve removing both a tumor and any metastases for diagnostic motive or treatment purposes.^[2] It implies that it consists removal of a tumor or mass and ancillary lymph nodes that may drain the mass, as in radical mastectomy.^[3]

Immunohistochemistry with SOX10 (staining the cell nuclei of melanocytes) of lentigo maligna, showing malignant melanocytes all the way to the resection margin (inked in yellow, at left), conferring a diagnosis of a not radically removed lesion.

Whilst in histopathology, radicality of tumor excisions is defined as the absence of tumor cells in a certain resection margin, with the specific margin width varying by tumor type and local guidelines.^[4]