Many factors affect the prognosis of patients undergoing tumor surgery, and anesthesia is one of the potential influencing factors. In general anesthesia, inhalation anesthesia is widely used in the clinic because of its strong curative effect and high controllability. However, the effect of inhalation anesthetics on the tumor is still controversial. More and more research has proved that inhalation anesthetics can intervene in local recurrence and distant metastasis of tumor by acting on tumor biological behavior, immune response, and gene regulation. In this paper, we reviewed the research progress of diverse inhalation anesthetics promoting or inhibiting cancer in the critical events of tumor recurrence and metastasis, and compared the effects of inhalation anesthetics on patients' prognosis in clinical studies, to provide theoretical reference for anesthesia management of patients undergoing tumor surgery.
Keywords: anesthesia; inhalation anesthetics; metastasis; surgery; tumor.