What are the risks of cancer surgery?

What side effects you might experience after cancer surgery will depend on your specific surgery. In general, most cancer operations carry a risk of:

• Pain. Pain is a common side effect of most operations. Some cause more pain than others do. Your health care team will tell you how to keep your pain to a minimum and will provide medications to reduce or eliminate the pain.
• Infection. The site of your surgery can become infected. Your health care team will show you how to care for your wound after surgery. Follow this routine closely to avoid infection, which can lengthen your recovery time after surgery. In the rare instance where an infection does occur, your doctor will likely treat this with antibiotics.

• Loss of organ function. In order to remove your cancer, the surgeon may need to remove an entire organ. For example, a kidney may need to be removed (nephrectomy) if you have kidney cancer.

  For some such operations, the remaining organ can function sufficiently to compensate for the loss, but in other situations you may be left with impairments. For instance, removal of a lung (pneumonectomy) may cause difficulty breathing.

• Bleeding. All operations carry a risk of bleeding. Your surgeon will try to minimize this risk.

• Blood clots. While you're recovering from surgery, you're at an increased risk of developing a blood clot. Though the risk is small, this complication can be serious.

  Blood clots most commonly occur in the legs and may cause some swelling and pain.

  A blood clot that breaks off and travels to a lung (pulmonary embolism) is a dangerous and sometimes deadly condition.

  Your surgeon will take precautions to prevent blood clots from developing, such as getting you up and out of bed as soon as possible after your operation or prescribing a blood-thinning medication to reduce the risk of a clot.

• Altered bowel and bladder function. Immediately after your surgery, you may experience difficulty having a bowel movement or emptying your bladder. This typically resolves in a few days, depending on your specific operation.

Whatever cancer treatment your doctor recommends, you're likely to feel some anxiety about your condition and the treatment process. Knowing what to expect can help. Use this information to help you ask informed questions when you meet with your doctor.