The surgeon's expanded role in cancer care

The expanded role of the surgeon now integrates a range of multi‐modality treatment options that address both local and regional and systemic disease control. This decision‐making process requires an understanding of the natural history of cancer and those prognostic factors that predict the risk of clinically occult regional metastases and distant metastases. The goal in managing the surgical patient with cancer is a full implementation of multi‐disciplinary cancer care to provide the highest quality of care with the maximum rehabilitation at the lowest possible cost.