Peritoneal Cancer Treatment & Management

  • Author: Wissam Bleibel, MD; Chief Editor: Jules E Harris, MD   more...
 
Updated: Aug 11, 2010
 

Medical Care

  • Multimodality therapy is currently the most commonly accepted therapeutic approach to peritoneal mesothelioma. This includes using the combination of surgical cytoreduction, intraperitoneal perioperative chemotherapy, and hyperthermia. Intraperitoneal chemotherapy greatly enhances drug concentrations in the peritoneal cavity and decreases its systemic toxicity. In addition to the intraoperative use of heated chemotherapeutic drugs such as cisplatin, mitomycin, or doxorubicin, newer techniques include adding immunotherapeutic agents such as interleukins and interferons. While the median survival with traditional therapeutic options ranges between 4 and 12 months, the application of multimodality therapy has shown promising results with increased survival approaching 60 months.
  • For patients with unresectable or recurrent malignant mesothelioma, palliative systemic chemotherapy (with different regimens such as cisplatin plus pemetrexed) should be considered. Other antineoplastic agents that may be used include cisplatin plus paclitaxel or mitomycin, doxorubicin, and irinotecan. Furthermore, intraperitoneal instillation of radioactive colloidal gold (Au 198) has been reported to improve symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma.
  • Primary peritoneal carcinoma is treated similarly to ovarian cancer, with cytoreduction and chemotherapy. Multimodality treatment consisting of tumor debulking followed by chemotherapy regimens based on 5-fluorouracil, doxorubicin, or cisplatin has been shown to have high response rate and improvement of median survival. Furthermore, the use of newer antineoplastic agents such as taxanes, topoisomerase I inhibitors, gemcitabine, and vinorelbine, alone or in combinations (eg, gemcitabine/cisplatin, irinotecan/cisplatin, docetaxel/gemcitabine, gemcitabine/carboplatin) has increased median survival to 8-11 months. In addition to the use of chemotherapeutic agents, recent studies have shown some benefit of antiangiogenic drugs such as bevacizumab and erlotinib.
    • It is generally accepted that all patients with good performance status should be considered for a trial of empiric chemotherapy, preferably with a regimen containing newer drugs. The combination of paclitaxel and carboplatin is a reasonable first-line therapy with possible benefit from adding a third agent (etoposide or gemcitabine).
    • Supportive measures should be considered in patients with poor performance status.
  • Al Balushi et al reported successful results in 3 children with desmoplastic small round cell tumor who were treated with aggressive chemoradiation and surgery combined with autologous bone marrow transplantation.[12]
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Surgical Care

  • Treatment of primary peritoneal carcinoma consists of total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy as needed, with debulking of tumor and follow-up chemotherapy.
  • Treatment of malignant peritoneal mesothelioma consists primarily of surgical palliation. Complete surgical resection is rarely, if ever, feasible and has not been shown to afford a survival benefit in the absence of additional therapy. If laparoscopy is used to help make the initial diagnosis, confine port sites to the abdominal midline because port site recurrence has been described, requiring extensive abdominal wall resection.
  • Benign cystic mesothelioma tends to recur even with aggressive surgical removal; however, among recorded cases, no deaths have been attributable to this disorder.
  • Iin patients with desmoplastic small cell tumors, the combination of aggressive surgical debulking and systemic chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and vincristine interspersed with ifosfamide, etoposide, and mesna (P6 protocol) appears to lead to an improved outcome. However, surgical excision is recommended only for nonmetastatic disease.[13]
  • Treatment of peritoneal and GI hemangiomas has involved surgical removal.
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Contributor Information and Disclosures
Author

Wissam Bleibel, MD  Staff Physician, Department of Internal Medicine, Caritas Carney Hospital, Tufts University School of Medicine

Wissam Bleibel, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Medical Association

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Coauthor(s)

Olga Kozyreva, MD  Fellow, Department of Hematology-Oncology, Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Sarah K May, MD  Consulting Staff, Department of Hematology-Oncology, Caritas Carney Hospital, Commonwealth Hematology-Oncology PC

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Specialty Editor Board

Robert C Shepard, MD, FACP  Associate Professor of Medicine in Hematology and Oncology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Vice President of Scientific Affairs, Therapeutic Expertise, Oncology, at PRA International

Robert C Shepard, MD, FACP is a member of the following medical societies: American Association for Cancer Research, American College of Physician Executives, American College of Physicians, American Federation for Clinical Research, American Federation for Medical Research, American Medical Association, American Medical Informatics Association, American Society of Hematology, Association of Clinical Research Professionals, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, European Society for Medical Oncology, Massachusetts Medical Society, and Society for Biological Therapy

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Francisco Talavera, PharmD, PhD  Senior Pharmacy Editor, eMedicine

Disclosure: eMedicine Salary Employment

Benjamin Movsas, MD  Vice-Chairman, Department of Radiation Oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center

Benjamin Movsas, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Radiology, American Radium Society, and American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Rajalaxmi McKenna, MD, FACP  Southwest Medical Consultants, SC, Department of Medicine, Good Samaritan Hospital, Advocate Health Systems

Rajalaxmi McKenna, MD, FACP is a member of the following medical societies: American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society of Hematology, and International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Chief Editor

Jules E Harris, MD  Clinical Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Medical Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Arizona College of Medicine; Consulting Staff, Arizona Cancer Center

Jules E Harris, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Association for Cancer Research, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association of Immunologists, American Society of Hematology, and Central Society for Clinical Research

Disclosure: GlobeImmune Salary Consulting

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