Progress in the combined modality management of peritoneal carcinomatosis.

摘要

Peritoneal carcinomatosis, a clinical phenomenon of diffuse intraabdominal malignancy, was previously regarded as a terminal condition. It occurs in up to 50% of patients with gastrointestinal or gynecological cancers as a site of initial presentation or a site of treatment failure. In mucinous appendiceal tumors, where the early diagnosis of an intact and localized tumor is unlikely, peritoneal carcinomatosis is almost uniformly present in all patients. From a median survival of 1 year with medical and expectant therapies, a combined modality approach of surgical cytoreduction and intraper-itoneal chemotherapy has led to an improvement in survival. We now observe a 5-year survival of 51% for selected patients with colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis [1] and 90% for mucinous appendiceal cancer [2].