Treatment of peritoneal surface malignancy by peritonectomy and intraperitoneal chemotherapy: a novel therapy with curative potential!

Peritoneal carcinomatosis has always been regarded to have a poor prognosis. Surgery is usually limited to palliation of bowel obstruction by performing an intestinal bypass or ostomy. This severe disease has been considered as equal to distant metastasis and intravenous (i.v.) chemotherapy is commonly used in order to achieve a regression of the tumour. However, resistance to cytotoxic drugs, a poor vascular supply and high osmotic pressure might prevent the efficient uptake of i.v. chemotherapeutic agents into tumour tissues. A new concept in dissemination of gastrointestinal cancer and gynecologic cancer now require that peritoneal implants are regarded in a different way. In many patients peritoneal dissemination is a locoregional spread of disease with no manifestation of systemic disease. A locoregional therapeutic approach combining cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal intraoperative chemotherapy evolved. This new treatment option seems to be an effective therapeutic approach in carefully selected patients, and offers a chance for cure or palliation in this condition with few alternative treatment options.