Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy: long-term results at St George Hospital, Australia.

BACKGROUND: Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) results from the secondary spread of many intraabdominal tumour types, such as colorectal malignancy (colorectal cancer, CRC), disseminated peritoneal adenomucinosis (DPAM), appendiceal cancer, ovarian carcinoma, sarcoma or from the occurrence of primary peritoneal disease such as peritoneal mesothelioma. The combination of cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) has seen improvements in survival in selected cases of these cancers.

METHODS: Between 1996 and 2014, a prospective database of 675 patients was created for the peritonectomy unit at our hospital. In total, 827 peritonectomy procedures (including redo CRS) were performed for the major subgroups of PC: DPAM 220; appendiceal cancer (peritoneal mucinous adenocarcinoma (PMCA)) 191; CRC 234; diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (DMPM) 73 and others 109. There were 152 redo-peritonectomy procedures within the total mentioned earlier (CRC 26; DPAM 58; DMPM 18; appendix 40; other 10).

RESULTS: The 5-year survivals for DPAM and PMCA were 80% and 42% respectively. The 5-year survivals for appendiceal cancer with peritoneal cancer index (PCI) <10, 10-20 and >20 were 60, 57 and 37% respectively (P = 0.09). The 2- and 5-year survivals for CRC were 56 and 24% respectively. The 5-year survivals for PCI 0-5, 6-10, 11-15 and >15 were 59, 15, 7 and 0% respectively (P = 0.000). The 5-year survival for DMPM with PCI < 10, 10-20 and >20 were 100, 55 and 39% respectively (P = 0.01).

CONCLUSION: CRS in combination with HIPEC provides a chance of long-term survival in selected cases of PC when compared with systemic therapy alone.