Hello Primrose2019,

                              l suffered bowel cancer with spread to liver.In my case the spread to liver was picked up after intial chemo for the bowel tumour on a pre-op scan.Due to rapidity of spread and importantly positioning of the metastasies any delay would have made surgical intervention impossible.As it was my operation sequence was changed to the liver first,with the hope that the bowel tumour would not break out and attach to other vital organs in the meantime,making surgery impossible there.l lost 60% of the liver along with the gall bladder,and my understanding was that the type of cancer present also played a part as to whether surgery could be considered an option.l was fortunate in that my lesions original site were on the outer lobes away from the inner areas packed with major infrastructure that would have made surgery a non starter.It comes down too the fact the although the titles are the same,bowel and liver cancer, the circumstances dictate that the realities are completely different.

                                      Factors like these along with others may be playing a part in limiting your mothers treatment options,the one thing l would say is that every surgeon would always opt for surgical removal allowing for a full cure,and would move heaven and earth to achieve that,only stopping short of endangering the patients life by doing so,they do not set out to fall short or fail.l hope this post might be of help,but the most obvious thing is to ask your mothers treatment team exactly why it is that the surgical option would not be considered available as that knowledge would remove the what ifs from your mind and possibly give you some comfort in the knowledge that the very best treatment possible in the circumstances is being provided to your Mum,

                                                                    Take care both,

                                                                                            David