Resection margin

Article summary

of a stained slide of a resected myopericytoma, the resection margin stained brown A resection margin or surgical margin is the edge or "margin" of apparently non-tumorous tissue around a tumor that has been surgically removed, called "resected", in surgical oncology. The resection is an attempt to remove a cancer tumor so that no portion of the malignant growth extends past the edges or margin of the removed tumor and surrounding tissue . These are retained after the surgery and examined microscopically by a pathologist to see if the margin is indeed free from tumor cells (called "negative"). If cancerous cells are found at the edges (called "positive") the surgery is much less likely to achieve the desired outcomes . The size of the margin is an important issue in areas that are functionally important (i.e., large vessels like the aorta or vital organs ) or in areas for which the extent of surgery is minimized due to aesthetic concerns (i.e., melanoma of the face or squamous cell carcinoma of the penis). The desired size of margin around the tumour can vary. In resections for breast cancer, there appears to be a difference between European and American radiation oncologists, with the former preferring larger margins of over 5 mm. Notably, in some clinical scenarios R1 margin can be considered as “planned” and is not associated with worse prognosis, e.g.…

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