Trial of Cytoreductive Surgery and Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) in Patients With Primary Peritoneal Cancers and Secondary Peritoneal Cancers From Stomach, Colorectal, Appendiceal, and/or Gynecological Origins

Peritoneal carcinomatosis can be caused by primary peritoneal cancers and secondary peritoneal spread from stomach, colorectal, appendiceal, and/or gynecological cancers. Combined presentation of patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis make up about 67,000 new cancer diagnoses each year. Of these cases, about 25,000 patients are estimated to be candidates for cytoreductive surgery combined with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC); however, in 2009 only five percent of these patients received such treatment.

Alternative therapies to cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC are few. They include surgical treatments with cytoreduction alone which are palliative in nature and inadequate to manage the disease, radiation which is limited in regard to tumors disseminated throughout abdominal cavity, systemic chemotherapy which has poor penetration into the peritoneum. Intraperitoneal chemotherapy via indwelling peritoneal catheter is limited due to port infections, toxicity, and unequal distribution in the abdominal cavity.

For patients whose disease is limited to the peritoneal cavity, multi-modality treatment with cytoreductive surgery followed by intraoperative HIPEC can deliver chemotherapy directly to microscopic tumors at a higher concentration than is tolerated systemically. It causes disruption of cell membranes and induces apoptosis. Moreover when intraperitoneal chemotherapy is given at a higher temperature, it has a selective lethal effect on cancer cells secondary to improved tissue absorption. The typical side effects of systemic chemotherapy are also minimized with HIPEC.

HIPEC is given intraoperatively in one treatment setting after all visible disease has been resected (i.e., cytoreductive surgery). The goal of cytoreductive surgery is to leave behind only microscopic disease and may require removal of adjacent organs. HIPEC is then delivered via tubings with temperature probes that are placed in the intraperitoneal cavity. The skin is then temporarily closed and the tubings are connected to a intraperitoneal hyperthermia and perfusion device that delivers sterile solution with chemotherapy into the abdomen. The device heats and circulates the chemotherapy for 90 minutes. After HIPEC is completed, abdomen is reopened and copiously irrigated. Surgical reconstruction with any removed organs (such as bowel) and fascial/skin closure are the final steps.

Previous studies have shown conflicting results on survival benefit for patients with some of the aforementioned secondary peritoneal cancers who have undergone cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC. This study is an outcomes based study that seeks to look at the impact of HIPEC on overall survival and recurrence-free survival.