Locoregional treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis from gastric cancer

The authors reviewed the natural history and the main features of the peritoneal carcinomatosis from gastric cancer briefly and analyzed the pertinent literature concerning the locoregional modalities for prevention and for treatment. Results of the web based voting by experts were also summarized. As regards the peritoneal perfusion with cytotoxic drugs with or without hyperthermia for preventing peritoneal carcinomatosis in high risk patients, there are some randomized clinical trials and one meta-analysis supporting a benefit of the procedure. However, disparity in methodology (drugs, dosage, duration of the treatment, addition of hyperthermia, etc.) precludes the adoption of a shared protocol to be used in the clinical practice in high risk patients. Once the. peritoneal carcinomatosis is established, the approach reported in literature is the peritonectomy associated with hyperthermic perfusion. However, data supporting benefits are scanty, and limited to few centers with a specific experience in this field. With regard to the main questions addressed to the experts' panel and concerning the indications for treatment and methodology. there was a general consistency among the experts and agreement with the findings of the literature. The need for a large multicenter trial to confirm the benefit and risk of intraperitoneal chemotherapy was recognized by both the experts and the authors.