Factors predicting survival after intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy with mitomycin C after cytoreductive surgery for patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis.

HYPOTHESIS: Certain clinicopathologic factors predict improved survival after cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy for peritoneal carcinomatosis.

DESIGN: Prospective clinical trial.

SETTING: Surgical oncology service at a university academic hospital.

PATIENTS: A population of 109 consecutive patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis treated between December 1991 and November 1997.

INTERVENTION: All patients underwent resection of gross disease followed by 2-hour intraoperative perfusion of mitomycin C (20-40 mg) into the peritoneal cavity at a temperature of 40.5 degrees C.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Clinicopathologic factors that independently predicted improved overall survival rates.

RESULTS: Overall survival at 1 and 3 years was 61% and 33%, respectively. With median follow-up of 52 months, median overall survival was 16 months. Four factors were significant independent predictors of improved survival by multivariate analysis: nonadenocarcinoma histologic features (P =.001), the appendix as a primary site (P =.003), the absence of hepatic parenchymal metastases (P =.01), and complete resection of all gross disease (R1/0 resection) (P<.001). Patients with an R1/0 resection vs an incomplete resection of gross disease (R2 resection) had 3-year overall survival of 68% vs 21% (P<.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis have a uniformly poor prognosis. However, in select patients, the natural history of this disease condition may be altered by using the multimodality approach of cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy. These results require confirmation in prospective randomized studies.