[Systemic treatment of peritoneal metastases]

Peritoneal metastases are common in metastatic disease of many tumour types and thus are determinant for prognosis and development of tumour-related symptoms that jeopardise quality of life. Systemic chemotherapy has proven efficacious in improving both prognosis and quality of life in numerous tumour types and should therefore be considered as part of the treatment strategy--although there is no large body of data from predefined cohorts with"only peritoneal" manifestation. In further clinical trials therefore, improvement of systemic chemotherapy by integration of novel agents should be implemented in multimodal treatment approaches combining systemic treatment, cytoreductive surgery, and intraperitoneal treatment strategies.