Application of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in peritoneal carcinomatosis of colorectal cancer

Abstract

Peritoneum is a common site of colorectal tumor metastasis. Patients with colorectal cancer who are diagnosed with peritoneum metastasis have extremely bad prognosis. Traditionally, peritoneum metastasis is regarded as a distant metastasis of colorectal cancer and classified as IV stage, which can only receive palliative treatment. However, more and more specialists gradually consider simple peritoneal carcinomatosis as a local regional disease, thus more aggressive treatment modality can be adopted, including cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). Multiple clinical trials have verified combination of CRS and HIPEC can dramatically improve prognosis and overall survival of patients compared to palliative surgery and systematic chemotherapy. However, the absence of a unified criterion for patients selection and treatment protocol gets in the way of the application of HIPEC, which still needs many clinical trials to make a standard guideline. Key words: Colorectal neoplasms; Neoplasm metastasis; Peritoneal carcinomatosis; Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy; Cytoreductive surgery