Peritoneal carcinomatosis cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC: a ray of hope for cure

This article offers a review on the use of cytoreductive surgery (CS) plus hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for the treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC). Traditionally, PC was treated with systemic chemotherapy alone with very poor response and a median survival of 6 months or less. In this review article, preoperative workup, surgical procedures, morbidity and mortality rates, oncological outcomes and quality of live after CS and HIPEC are reported regarding the different tumor entities. This combined treatment for selected patients was found to improve survival. The extent of intraperitoneal tumor and the completeness of surgery are the most important factors of postoperative outcome. On the other hand, the need of phase III studies, explains a consensus among many surgical oncology experts throughout the world about the use of this new treatment strategy as a standard of care.