[Verse 1] One clean piece, that's the whole design, Cut around it, never cross the line, Touch it gentle, like a sleeping bee, Wrap a cuff of healthy tissue, set the border free, R-zero's the number that we're chasing down, No stray cells left wandering around, The knife's a storyteller, writes the margin clear, So the pathologist can read what happened here. [Chorus] En bloc, en bloc, keep the tumor whole, Don't go peeling, that's a cardinal no, No ink on tumor, breast cancer's rule, Two millimeters, DCIS school, Half to two for melanoma's reach, Five centimeters, colon, each and each, One to two for rectum down below, Margins are the map that tells you where to go. [Verse 2] Breast cancer's simple, picture it in ink, If the dye touches tumor, cells are on the brink, No ink on tumor, that's the only line, Invasive cancer needs that border fine, But DCIS hides inside the duct's own maze, Two millimeters clears the hazy haze, Melanoma's trickier, depth decides the path, Half a centimeter thin, two centimeters deep math. [Verse 3] Colon cancer travels down the bowel wall's lane, Five centimeters guards it coming back again, Lymph nodes nestle in the mesentery's fan, So we clear a highway wide as span we can, But the rectum's boxed in bone, no room to roam, One to two centimeters, closer to home, Surgeons measure tight where pelvis holds the floor, Every bit of tissue matters, never less, not more. [Chorus] En bloc, en bloc, keep the tumor whole, Don't go peeling, that's a cardinal no, No ink on tumor, breast cancer's rule, Two millimeters, DCIS school, Half to two for melanoma's reach, Five centimeters, colon, each and each, One to two for rectum down below, Margins are the map that tells you where to go. [Bridge] Now what if the tumor's glued to a neighbor's wall, Bladder, liver, loop of bowel, standing tall? Don't you dare go peeling, don't pick it apart, Take the organ with it, give the cancer no fresh start, Peeling leaves a shadow, cells that stay behind, Spilling splits the capsule, recurrence redefined, GIST and retroperitoneal sarcoma hate a tear, One burst bubble plants a seed of trouble, handle it with care. [Chorus] En bloc, en bloc, keep the tumor whole, Don't go peeling, that's a cardinal no, No ink on tumor, breast cancer's rule, Two millimeters, DCIS school, Half to two for melanoma's reach, Five centimeters, colon, each and each, One to two for rectum down below, Margins are the map that tells you where to go. [Outro] Margins are the language, pathology's own speech, The surgeon writes the sentence that the slide will teach, Clean edges, closed story, R-zero, said and done, En bloc, intact, untouched — that's how the fight is won.
← The Goals of Cancer Surgery | Lymph Nodes and Sentinel Node Biopsy →