THE EXTENSIVE, PALLIATIVE CANCER OPERATIO N - IS IT WORTHWHILE - WHATARE ITS AIMS

This question can be approached from 3 viewpoints. 1. Economics. Here it becomes clear that calculations of cost-effectiveness - important a s they are - are meaningless for any individual case. 2. Internal qual ity control found 138 patients (out of a total of 1200 oncological pro cedures performed in 1993/94) who had extensive palliative cancer oper ations. With an overall operative mortality of 9.4%, 59 were still ali ve after a mean follow-up period of 15 months; among the 49 who could be reached 60% rated their quality of life to be ''satisfactory'' to ' 'very good''. However, in the end, quality control figures are of litt le help for the individual case. 3. Selected individual case histories concerning surgery for metastases make it abundantly clear that the a nswer to the title's question must be found anew by each individual pa tient and his surgeon.