Rolle und Aufgaben der chirurgischen Onkologie im Rahmen molekular definierter Therapien [Role and function of surgical oncology in molecular defined therapy]

Context: The progressive development of molecular analyses allows a comprehensive clinical establishment of biomarkers. Embedded in multimodal therapy concepts it is the surgeon’s duty to understand the underlying mechanisms of predictive, prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers. Besides an increasingly successful therapy of cancer the application of these markers presents the basis of personalized cancer therapy. Method: Selective review of the literature. Results and conclusions: However, implementation of these techniques in the daily clinical practice requires an extensive education of surgeons. The attending physician is forced to understand the molecular principles and the limitations of these markers. Furthermore, surgeons also need to understand the forthcoming difficulties arising from the side effects. To meet these demands tumor surgeons need to evolve into surgical oncologists.