Surgical management of patients with advanced cancer (I)

Surgical treatment of patients with cancer is usually
undertaken with the intention of curing the disease.
However, following apparently 'curative' surgery for
common solid cancers (e.g. breast, colon), 5-year survivals
of up to 60% only have been reported) '2 Also, in some
patients the malignant disease is too advanced at the initial
presentation for 'curative' surgery to be carried out. Surgical
procedures, albeit palliative, may still have an important
role in symptom control in patients with metastatic and/or
locally advanced disease. This may result in an improvement
in the quality of life in these patients and reduce the need
for hospitalization in the terminal stages of their disease.

This article is the first in a series of three that will discuss
the role of surgical and associated interventions in the
palliation of symptoms in patients with advanced or
disseminated disease. We will focus in this article on the
abnormal collections of fluid, induced by the malignant
process within body cavities--pleural, peritoneal and
pericardial.