Ask if there could be any long-term effects from the surgery. Long-term side effects depend on the type of surgery done. You might want to ask about effects on your ability to have a baby or father a child (fertility) if surgery is being done on or around your reproductive organs. People who have colorectal cancer surgery may need an opening in the belly to which the end of the colon is attached (a colostomy). Men having their prostate removed (radical prostatectomy) are at risk for losing control of their urine (incontinence) or becoming unable to get or keep an erection (impotence). Your doctor should talk to you about the possible long-term effects of surgery before the operation. You may have heard that surgery for cancer can cause the cancer to spread. It’s very rare for surgery to cause cancer to spread. Advances in equipment used during surgery and more detailed imaging tests have helped make this risk very low. Still, there are some important situations when this can happen. Doctors who have a lot of experience in treating cancer with surgery are very careful to avoid these situations. In the past, larger needles were used to take a piece of the tumor (biopsy) to look at under a microscope in the lab. Back then, the chance of spread or “seeding” from the biopsy was higher. Now, it’s more likely that a small needle is used to remove a piece of the tissue (called a needle biopsy). With the smaller needle, the chances of a biopsy causing a cancer to spread or “seed” are very low. Still, some liver (hepatic), kidney (renal), and other tumors have a very small risk of this happening during a biopsy procedure. Most types of cancers can be safely sampled by what is called an incisional biopsy, where the surgeon cuts through the skin to remove a small part of the tumor. But there are a few exceptions, such as certain tumors in the eyes or in the testicles. Doctors may treat these types of cancer first, without taking a biopsy, or may recommend removing (resecting) the entire tumor if it’s likely to be cancer. Sometimes, a needle biopsy can be used safely, and then if the tumor is found to be cancer, the whole tumor is removed. Needle biopsies can’t be used for some tumors. In these cases, the tumor may need to be partially or totally removed