Raleigh, NC (PRWEB) August 19, 2013
A team of researchers in the surgery department at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York say a cancer treatment that combines surgery and chemotherapy results in “acceptable” rates of complications and death and “should be included” in the multidisciplinary care of patients with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma and other operable abdominal cancers.
The team analyzed the outcomes of patients with peritoneal mesothelioma, appendiceal cancer, colorectal cancer, or disseminated peritoneal adenomucinosis who were treated at the cancer center between 2003 and 2011. All of the patients underwent cytoreductive surgery (CRS or CS) to remove as many visible cancer cells as possible. This was followed by hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), a rinse of the open body cavity with a solution of heated chemotherapy drugs, to destroy any remaining cancer cells.
While the complication rate for CRS/HIPEC was found to be comparable to other major cancer surgeries, there were no deaths among the cancer patients within 30 days of the operation. Even 2 months after the surgery, only 2.7% of the CRS/HIPEC patients had died. These deaths were primarily among colorectal cancer patients who had to undergo the trauma of multiple bowel resections.
The best news for mesothelioma patients is that the study found that 80.8% of the peritoneal mesothelioma patients who underwent CRS/HIPEC were still alive five years after the procedure. Only the disseminated peritoneal adenomucinosis patients did better, with a five-year overall survival rate of 91.3%.
The CRS/HIPEC approach has become increasingly popular in recent years in the treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma, a cancer usually linked with occupational exposure to asbestos. Peritoneal mesothelioma, which starts in the membrane that lines the abdomen and can spread to abdominal organs, is a less common form of mesothelioma, which more often affects the lung lining. About 100 to 500 cases of peritoneal mesothelioma are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, making up about 30% of all mesothelioma cases.
The original study appears in a recent issue of the journal Cancer Medicine (Haslinger, M, “A contemporary analysis of morbidity and outcomes in cytoreduction/hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemoperfusion”, June 2, 2013, Cancer Medicine, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23930210)
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