What are some reasons that you can't operate if you have lung cancer?

Answer 1

If it is too far along in forming, the surgery would be fatal.
By that point also it has probably spread throughout the rest of the body.

Answer 2

Unfit for operation - too much smoking causing COPD and unability to breathe under anaesthetic - no operation

Lung cancer has spread - too late to operate curatively - some surgeons may offer operation still in order to reduce the tumour bulk, but this is often better done with radiotherapy now

Position of the cancer - very deep in and close to midline structures in the chest - particularly with cancer enclosing big blood vessels - many surgeons would not operate on this, but this is very severe end stage lung cancer - it usually stays within the lung tissue until it spreads

Answer 3

Yes it could be that the mass is too big or it's position makes it dangerous to do surgery. There could be various reasons. Sometimes they will try to shrink it with radiation and chemo and then decide whether to do surgery. But there could be other reasons the patient wouldn't be a good candidate.