Have you attended any appointments? Reason for asking, it may be down to the fact he's deemed medically unfit for any sort of treatment. This may have been mentioned to both of them, and they've just forgotten that it was mentioned. You get so much information at these meetings, it's easy to forget a large part of what was said, and why it was said.

To receive any sort of systematic cancer treatment, even getting general anaesthetic, you have to meet a fitness criteria, one of which is heart health. It's why heart scans, ECG's etc are an important part of the pre-treatment testing. Not everyone unfortunately is deemed medically fit to receive treatment. Sometimes the treatment required is deemed worse than the thing it's supposed to treat in the here and now.

Chemo, immunotherapy etc can put a lot of strain on the heart. It can also make people more susceptible to blood clots. More so if the person is immobile, it further increases the chances.

This must be extremely frustrating for you. However, as ProfBaw says there are criteria which people have to meet. I am caring for someone considerably younger than your father who does not meet GA criteria. (I struggle to deal with the fact we are now potentially just a fall away from disaster!) For us, there are risks in terms of GA posing a further knock to cognition given there is already neurodegenerative cognitive impairment, plus other co-morbidities such as respiratory issues, poor wound healing, failure of other systems within the body etc. It's not a case of being totally written off as the doctors are still trying to optimise what they can. But I have to accept that my friend does not now qualify for operations/treatments that others significantly older might be allowed to have with every case being assessed individually. This is extremely painful for me because I know many older people who have received treatment, also sadly some who died on operating table as heart not up to it. Doctors generally are the people best placed to advice in terms of treatment, but there are circumstances where it may be good to seek a second opinion. In your father's case, the awfulness of his situation is that with the cancer progression the doctors are less likely to operate on the heart. I think it would be a good idea therefore for you to call the CRUK nurse helpline to discuss your concerns further just to settle that need for a second opinion or not, as it's clearly troubling you. Then you will know you have tried your very hardest, which I feel is is important to you in coming to terms with this difficult situation. My heart goes out to you because I know exactly what it feels like to have a loved one turned down for treatments. It's hard and it hurts. Take care.