Current status and future directions in the treatment of peritoneal dissemination from colorectal carcinoma

Abstract

Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) carries a worse prognosis than other sites of colorectal metastases. If incomplete resection of PC affords no benefit to patients, complete resection of PC is beneficial in selected patients. The combination of complete cytoreductive surgery to treat the visible PC and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) to treat the nonvisible PC is on the verge of becoming the gold standard. The prognostic impact of a complete resection is high, but that of HIPEC per se is more hypothetical. The presence of a few resectable liver metastases associated with PC is not a contraindication to surgery plus HIPEC.