Hipec treatment

Hipec = Hyperthermic interperitoneal chemotherapy

On August 11th , the NY Times published an article discussing surgery and hyperthermic interperitoneal chemotherapy for appendix, colon and ovarian cancers. The article

Hot Chemotherapy Bath: Patients See Hope, Critics Hold Doubts includes photos of the invasive surgery.

After reading the entire article and looked at the photos I have some concerns. There has only been one clinical trial ( 10 years ago) using this process for appendix cancer. What dosages of chemotherapy are the doctors using? In the case of ovarian cancer, is the dosage the same as that used in interperitoneal therapy? Is the temperature they are heating the chemo to the optimum level? Is one chemo drug better than another? Will patients still need to have IV chemo after the treatment? Would heating IP chemotherapy drugs ( since there are numerous clinical trials with this process) have the same result as this flushing process?

There are many unanswered questions and I hope there are plans to design some trials to answer those questions.

Dee

Every Day is a Blessing!