Morbidity and mortality after surgery in patients with disseminated or locally advanced cancer receiving systemic chemotherapy.

All postoperative complications and mortality were analyzed in a diverse group of patients operated upon by the authors during a ten-year period. These patients shared only two common factors: 1) known locally advanced or disseminated cancer, and 2) systemic chemotherapy within three weeks (either pre- or postoperatively) of major surgery. One hundred eighty-six operations were performed on 175 patients. The overall mortality in this series was 2.2% (four patients), with a complication rate of 5.9% (11 patients). Despite the known detrimental effects of widespread cancer and cytotoxic agents on wound healing, appropriate surgical intervention can be accomplished with an acceptable mortality and morbidity in patients with locally advanced or disseminated cancer who are receiving systemic chemotherapy.