Table 1.
Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic perioperative chemotherapy (HIPEC) for colorectal peritoneal metastases.
| Credits | Debits |
|---|---|
| (i) Long-term survival in 30% of patients (ii) Patients with minimal carcinomatosis experience best survival |
(i) The cytoreductive surgical procedure is complex and requires an extended learning curve |
| (iii) Morbidity (12%) and mortality (1%) at experienced centers is possible | (ii) Surgical series contain patients who have received many different HIPEC regimens at many different timepoints in their treatment |
| (iii) The relative roles of CRS and HIPEC in the causation of long-term survival have not been determined | |
| (iv) Seventy percent of patients in the literature went on to die of peritoneal metastases usually because HIPEC did not sustain the surgical complete response |