The safety and effectiveness of prophylactic hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in patients with pathological T3-4 locally advanced colon cancer.

INTRODUCTION: The safety and effectiveness of prophylactic hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in pathological T3-4 locally advanced (pT3N + M0 and pT4NxM0) colon cancer (CC) patients with radical resection need further study.

METHODS: Clinical and pathological information of pT3-4 locally advanced CC patients who received radical surgery in our hospital from January 2018 to December 2020 were analyzed. The prognosis of patients was estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis and Kaplan-Meier method.

RESULTS: Among 927 patients, 10.4% (96/927) received prophylactic HIPEC based on 5-FU, 4.6% (43/927) received prophylactic HIPEC based on lobaplatin, 85.0% (788/927) received conventional therapy. The incidence of metachronous peritoneal carcinomatosis (mPC) was 9.4%. Complications occurred in 32 patients (4.1%) in the conventional therapy group, 6 patients (6.3%) in the prophylactic HIPEC group based on 5-FU and 3 patients (7.0%) in the prophylactic HIPEC group based on lobaplatin within 30 days after surgery (5-FU vs. conventional therapy group, p = 0.464; Lobaplatin vs. conventional therapy group, p = 0.591). Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that prophylactic HIPEC based on either 5-FU or lobaplatin regimen could not effectively improve mPC-free survival (5-FU: p = 0.020, HR = 1.927, 95% CI, 1.111-3.343; Lobaplatin: p = 0.167, HR = 0.247, 95% CI, 0.034-1.796), overall survival (5-FU: p = 0.361, HR = 1.360, 95% CI, 0.703-2.634; Lobaplatin: p = 0.780, HR = 0.816, 95% CI, 0.195-3.416) and disease-free survival (5-FU: p = 0.525, HR = 1.149, 95% CI, 0.749-1.760; Lobaplatin: p = 0.117, HR = 0.488, 95% CI, 0.199-1.198).

CONCLUSION: Early prophylactic HIPEC based on 5-FU or lobaplatin subsequent to radical resection for patients with pT3-4 locally advanced CC is safe, but not effective in reducing the risk for mPC.