Emergency Surgery for Abdominal Cancer: Challenges and Innovation

An oncologic emergency is defined as an acute, potentially life-threatening condition in a cancer patient that arises as a consequence of either the malignancy itself or its treatment. Many such emergencies are indicative of advanced or end-stage disease.

Cancer patients may present with symptoms related to obstruction of various anatomical structures, caused by a range of underlying mechanisms. Among these, gastrointestinal tract obstruction is the most frequently encountered condition in surgical practice. Other common surgical emergencies include infections related to immunosuppression, gastrointestinal perforation, and bleeding events.

Accurate identification of the underlying cause is crucial for initiating the most appropriate treatment, as these emergencies can stem from either benign or malignant processes. While some conditions can be effectively managed with conservative or non-invasive approaches, others necessitate emergency surgical intervention.

Key factors in determining the optimal management strategy include the patient’s performance status, cancer stage and prognosis, the nature and severity of the emergency, and the patient’s preferences regarding the invasiveness of treatment.

This special issue aims to provide an overview of potential surgical emergencies in oncology that any surgeon may encounter in daily practice, and to offer insights into the current approaches to managing this broad spectrum of emergencies.

We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Systematic Reviews, Mini Reviews, and Case Reports focusing on, but not limited to:

- minimally invasive surgery for abdominal cancer
- new technologies for abdominal cancer surgery
- multidisciplinary approaches to abdominal cancer surgery

Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: emergency surgery, abdominal surgery, emergency oncology, minimally invasive surgery, abdominal cancer

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.