A major review of previously published studies confirms that surgical removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes in healthy premenopausal women with BRCA gene mutations reduces the risk of breast cancer by 51 percent and the risk of ovarian and fallopian tube cancers by 79 percent. Among postmenopausal women with BRCA gene mutations, this surgery is found to significantly reduce the incidence of ovarian cancer but not breast cancer.

Without the surgery, women with inherited mutations in the two BRCA genes have up to an 84 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer and up to a 46 percent risk of ovarian and fallopian tube cancers. With these data, women with these mutations have a proven option for reducing their cancer risk, although it comes with many side effects (including early-onset menopause) and prevents women of child-bearing age from having children.

The use of 5-aminolevulinic acid, a substance that reacts with and illuminates malignant glioma cells, is shown to improve surgeons' ability to remove tumor tissue. Patients treated with this technique during surgery were significantly less likely to have any tumor growth after six months, compared to those who underwent conventional surgery.

A study by researchers at multiple cancer centers finds that laparoscopic surgery to remove colon tumors was as effective as conventional open abdominal surgery, and was associated with shorter hospital stays and less pain after surgery. Laparoscopic surgery involves removing the tumor through multiple small incisions and a telescoping camera device. This less-invasive approach is now widely used.

Unlike other organs, the liver has two major sources of blood supply, instead of one. For unknown reasons, cancer only develops around the lower of these arteries, the hepatic artery, and uses this blood supply to fuel its growth. Doctors have long debated whether temporarily blocking – or embolizing – this artery to starve the tumor of blood can improve overall outcomes.

In 2002, two studies show that repeatedly (every 2-6 months) injecting the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin and then embolizing the hepatic artery increases survival in a set of patients whose tumors cannot be removed surgically. However, the approach is still debated by researchers, who question its overall impact.