HIPEC Technology

Cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC Technology (Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy) – is an innovative and advanced procedure to treat cancers originated from or spread to the abdominal cavity.

The abdominal organs’ cancer is metastatic and tends to spread to abdominal surfaces and the peritoneum. This type of cancer is termed as peritoneal carcinomatosis and was traditionally considered as non-curable.  

Cancers originating from abdominal organs involves the peritoneum and include metastasis (spread) of cancer of the stomach, cancer of the appendix, cancer of the ovaries, and cancer of the colon and rectum. Primarily, cancers of peritoneum are rare and usually include peritoneal mesothelioma and primary peritoneal carcinoma. The treatment procedure for cancers originated from or spread to the abdominal cavity include cytoreductive surgery in combination with HIPEC technology.

HIPEC (Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy) 

• Intraperitoneal: The treatment is delivered to the abdominal cavity.
• Hyperthermic Chemotherapy: It is a treatment that has a solution containing chemotherapy. During the treatment, the solution is heated to a temperature greater than normal body temperature. This is because heated chemotherapy can be penetrated in the tumour tissue from a very limited distance. As it is necessary to remove all visible and palpable tumour deposits before HIPEC is delivered.

The administration of intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy is called HIPEC. It is designed to kill any remaining cancer cells after the cytoreductive surgery. During the procedure, a machine will continuously circulate a heated sterile solution which contains a chemotherapeutic agent, throughout the peritoneal cavity. The machine circulates according to the protocol for one to one and a half hours.

The HIPEC procedure has many advantages. It improves drug absorption and effect with minimal exposure to the rest of the body. This helps in avoiding the normal side effects of chemotherapy.

Most commonly treated diseases are: 

• Appendiceal cancer
• Colon and rectal cancer
• Gastric cancer treatment 
• Mesothelioma
• Ovarian cancer 
• Primary peritoneal cancer
• Pseudomyxoma peritonei

Studies have shown that the combined effect of HIPEC procedure with cytoreductive surgery offers improved survival outcomes as compared to the conventional treatment of plain chemotherapy and standard surgery.

The HIPEC procedure when combined with cytoreductive surgery comes with a hope of possible cure and prolonged survival for patients suffering from Tumours of Appendix, Pseudomyxoma Peritonei from Mucinous, Peritoneal Mesothelioma, Peritoneal Spread of Colorectal Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, and Malignant Ascites.

Cancer Centre at Nanavati Max Super Speciality hospital is amongst the first to offer HIPEC (Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy) Technology in India. We offer cytoreductive surgery in combination with HIPEC Technology (Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy) as an innovative advanced procedure to treat cancers that originates from the abdominal cavity or spread into it metastatically.