Exploring HIPEC Treatment as an Option for Peritoneal Cancers

Before the creation of heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), patients who had cancer in their body cavity didn’t have that many options and, sadly, often didn’t live very long, says Ankit Patel, MD, a surgical oncologist at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“HIPEC was an endeavor born of an effort to help these patients,” says Patel, who specializes in the treatment. “It was found to be very effective for the right patients and the right cancer.”

HIPEC is part of a two-step process for cancers that either originate in the peritoneal cavity or migrate there from an organ. The first step is cytoreductive surgery, to remove as much of the cancer as possible from the abdominal cavity, followed by the application of heated chemotherapy in the cavity to “treat any of that microscopic disease that might be left behind or that we can’t get to,” he says.

But HIPEC isn’t considered the best treatment option for all types of cancers. “Generally speaking, HIPEC is the standard of care for certain histologies, including peritoneal mesothelioma and appendiceal cancer,” but Dr. Patel and his colleagues at Roswell Park are “very selective” about suggesting HIPEC as a treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer, metastatic gastric cancer or other cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.

“More important, it comes down to histology, grade of tumor, patient’s functional status and the goals of care,” he says.