Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy is a novel therapy designed to treat patients with pseudomyxoma peritonei or cancer from another site that has spread throughout the organ-filled peritoneal cavity, but not into the liver or sites outside the peritoneal cavity.
The procedure, commonly referred to as the Sugarbaker procedure after developer Dr. Paul Sugarbaker, utilizes the fact that cancer cells respond differently to heat than normal cells to treat cancers that develop or spread to the membranes that line the abdominal cavity and surrounding organs.
The two-part treatment begins with surgeons removing as much tumorous tissue as possible. Directly following surgery, doctors circulate a heated solution throughout the abdominal cavity. When the solution reaches the desired temperature, the doctors add a tumor-specific chemotherapy agent to the solution. Heat itself has an anti-tumor effect and the high temperature improves chemotherapy effectiveness and absorption into the peritoneal tissue.
The procedure may be used to treat:
- Pseudomyxoma peritonei
- Peritoneal mesothelioma
- Peritoneal sarcoma
- Recurrent intraperitoneal cancer including, colorectal cancer, gastric cancer or ovarian cancer
- Symptom relief for patients with abdominal swelling caused by cancer (malignant ascites)