Loco-regional Treatment of Peritoneal Carcinomatosis: Survival, Morbidity and Quality of Life

Sammanfattning: Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) is traditionally regarded as a terminal stage of disease with a poor prognosis and systemic chemotherapy is regarded as palliative treatment. In order to improve survival and even to achieve cure for selected patients with PC, cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal che-motherapy have been advocated. Despite complete macroscopic removal of tumour, residual microscopic malignant cells might result in recurrence. Intraperitoneal chemotherapy aims to kill residual malignant cells and thereby needs to be distributed in the entire peritoneal cavity. This aggres-sive combined loco-regional treatment has a high risk of morbidity and mor-tality. Whether the increased risks are acceptable to improve survival re-quires investigation and the impact of loco-regional treatment of PC on health-related quality of life (HRQL) needs to bee exploredThe overall aim of this thesis was to analyse the impact of cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy on patients with peritoneal carci-nomatosis.A significant survival improvement (median 32 months) was seen in 18 patients with PC of colorectal origin subjected to loco-regional treatment, in comparison to matched controls treated with systemic chemotherapy (me-dian survival 14 months, Paper I). The results of single-photon emission computer-tomography (SPECT) in 51 patients were correlated to the number of intraperitoneal chemotherapy courses that could be performed without further surgery (Paper II). Postoperative 30-days morbidity and 90-days mortality was investigated in 123 PC-patients after loco-regional treatment. Severe adverse events occurred in 51 (41%) patients. Five patients (4%) had treatment-related mortality. Stoma formation, duration of surgery, periopera-tive blood loss, and extent of PC was associated with morbidity (Paper III). HRQL was investigated in 64 patients. HRQL was negatively affected at 3 months but a partial recovery was seen at 8 months. 30-day morbidity did not have any impact on HRQL at 8 months (Paper IV). This treatment there fore appears justified despite considerable toxicity in view of possible life prolongation.