I often hear doctors tell patients that “the surgery was successful”, and I am often asked by patients’ families, “Doctor, does a successful surgery mean that everything will be fine in the future” and “What are the chances of a successful surgery? What are the chances of success?” I would often be asked by the patient’s family, “Doctor, is the surgery successful? Every time, I would look into the patient’s eyes, stop for a moment, and let my thoughts fly for a while. It is easy to say the word “success”, but it is not so easy to understand its meaning objectively. To judge the success of a procedure, you must first understand what you mean by success. Many patients hope that the surgery will be successful in “removing all the cancer cells”, that it will not recur or metastasize, and that they will have the same results as in benign diseases. This wish is especially strong when the doctor says the surgery is successful. Once the cancer recurs and metastasizes, the original surgery is unconsciously judged as unsuccessful. If the ideal outcome is the criterion, then basically all surgeries are unsuccessful for malignant tumors. Before surgery, doctors will communicate with patients about what kind of disease it is, why surgery is necessary, and what will happen if surgery is not done. This is the basis of surgery. And what the surgery is intended to achieve is to alter its natural disease process and prolong the patient’s life, not to mean a complete termination of the disease process. As far as the current surgery is concerned, a successful surgery is one that is performed smoothly according to the predetermined plan to achieve the purpose of the surgery and to maximize the protection of the patient’s rights. Successful removal of the tumor is a success. If the tumor is not removed, it is also a success if the tumor is treated properly according to the preoperative plan. However, if the tumor is not cut off, it is also a success if the tumor is treated properly according to the preoperative plan. As for postoperative complications, this is a characteristic of the surgery itself and is not a simple criterion used to measure the success of the surgery or not. Of course, the incidence of complications is related to the skill level of the operator, but also directly related to the individual patient’s specific situation. Simply put, getting off the operating table successfully is the first successful step. A successful recovery and discharge from the hospital is the second step of success. The third step is to get well and to perform the next step of treatment. For cancer, one year after surgery is a success, and then the second year is a success, and then the third year and the fourth year. …… Inevitably, at each stage, there will be patients who stop. But as long as survival is longer than without surgery, quality of life is higher, and there is less disease, that is where the value of surgery lies.