A surgical oncologist is a trained surgeon who has completed a post-residency sub-specialist training program in surgical oncology. Surgery is the oldest treatment for cancer and, as a single modality, cures more animals and people with cancer than any other treatment. Despite this, surgical oncology is not a recognized specialty in veterinary medicine, unlike medical and radiation oncology.

A similar situation exists in human medicine. There is an increasing effort for surgical oncology to be recognized as a separate specialty and with good reason. The surgeon has a central role in the prevention, diagnosis, and definitive treatment of neoplastic diseases, and palliation and rehabilitation of cancer patients. Compared to a general surgeon, a surgical oncologist has training and current knowledge of tumor biology and, importantly, the role of surgery in the multimodality treatment of cancer, particularly radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Because surgical oncologists treat a greater volume of cancer patients and have more experience in the management of both rare and common tumors, the outcome for patients treated by surgical oncologists are significantly better than those treated by general surgeons. For example, there is over a 50% decrease in local recurrence rates for colorectal cancer and 33% reduction in mortality rates at 5 years in women with breast cancer when they are treated by a surgical oncologist.