[Technical and organisational considerations regarding surgical debulking]

The Authors report on their experience with debulking surgery, based on 46 patients affected by advanced cancers and treated between January 2001 and May 2003 to reduce the tumour mass. Thirty-eight out of 46 (82%) were women. The Authors performed 23 pelvic peritonectomies, 16 multicompartmental peritonectomies according to the Sugarbaker technique, 8 hysterectomies with bilateral ovariectomy, 4 ureteral resections with end-to-end reconstruction, 4 pelvic lymphectomies and 2 resections of the bladder. No perioperative mortality is reported, and major morbidity amounted to less than 5%. The Authors stress the problems encountered while performing debulking surgery and are of the opinion that the majority of the problems could be overcome by precise organization in dedicated surgical centres specifically or mainly devoted to surgical debulking.