“Why can't some tumors be removed?”

There are critical structures in the human body that render a tumor unresectable (cannot remove the tumor). If the tumor involves these structures, it many not be able to be removed. However, there are other reasons why a tumor may not be removed at surgery. If there is more than one tumor seen at the time of surgery, then there may be no survival benefit to performing a surgery. Surgery to remove the tumor would only cause a longer recovery time delaying the time a patient can get to chemotherapy. In this scenario, chemotherapy would be the only life lengthening treatment.

In the liver, there are 2 distinct lobes or sides. If the tumor encroached upon the other side of the liver, there may not have been enough liver left after a resection. This could send a patient into liver failure and ultimately death.

There are several possibilities, including the tumor having already spread in the abdomen or through the liver, or the tumor being unresectable. If it were advanced and invading the blood supply for the liver, that would be a reason where it could not be safely removed. Would consider asking the surgeon for clarification as this would also impact the stage of the cancer.

The usual reasons why a tumor cannot be removed surgically have to do with involvement of vital vascular structures such as the arteries or veins heading into and out of the liver. There are times when those vessels cannot be sacrificed and in that situation the tumor cannot be removed. However if he has a good response to chemotherapy and the tumor shrinks then perhaps consideration to surgery may be given down the road. Unfortunately, the prognosis for gallbladder cancer is usually poor. I’m sorry to hear he’s going through this