Who should do your reconstruction after cancer surgery? | CION Cancer Clinics

It can be either. Reconstruction after cancer is done by a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, or by a surgical oncologist who has trained in reconstruction. What matters more than the title is regular experience with your kind of rebuilding, and a team that plans it together with the cancer operation.

Why both routes exist

Plastic surgeons train for years in moving tissue, grafts and joining small blood vessels. Some surgical oncologists, especially those working on the head and neck or the breast, go on to learn those same skills so they can rebuild what they remove. In some centres one surgeon does both parts. In others, two teams work in turn in the same operation. Both ways can work well.

What actually decides quality

How often the surgeon does this kind of reconstruction, whether the team can check and rescue a flap at any hour, and whether the cancer surgeon and the reconstructive surgeon plan together before the day. The nurses who watch the flap and the physiotherapists who help you recover are part of that result too.

Why the family should care who does it

After discharge, the reconstructive team is usually the one you call about the flap, the donor site or a wound that will not settle. Knowing who they are, and how to reach them, saves time when something worries you at home. If you live in a district far from the centre, ask early how follow-up visits and urgent problems will be handled, and whether a local doctor can be kept informed.

This page cannot tell you which surgeon or centre suits your case. That depends on the cancer, the part being rebuilt and your health. It also cannot tell you whether you need reconstruction at all. Your treating team decides that, and explains what it weighs.

Questions that help you judge a team

Ask who will do the reconstruction, and how often they do this kind. Ask whether the cancer surgeon and the reconstructive surgeon plan together. Ask who checks the flap at night, and how quickly a surgeon can return you to theatre if it is in trouble. Ask who you call after discharge. Ask the centre directly whether it offers the specific technique mentioned to you, rather than assuming.

When a complex rebuild may not be the right choice

Not everyone suits a long flap operation. Serious heart or lung disease, frailty, or cancer that has spread widely can make a simpler closure or a prosthesis the wiser plan. A team that tells you this plainly is helping you, not holding back care.