Pharmacology of perioperative intraperitoneal and intravenous chemotherapy in patients with peritoneal surface malignancy.

Peritoneal surface malignancy is a common manifestation of intra-abdominal malignancies. Systemic chemotherapy offers no long-term survival and poor quality of life for these patients in their terminal stages of disease. By contrast, cytoreductive surgery combined with perioperative intraperitoneal and intravenous chemotherapy has resulted in encouraging clinical results. Further improvements should come from both clinical phase II/III studies and pharmacologic research. This article reviews the current pharmacologic data and controversies regarding the perioperative intraperitoneal and intravenous application of chemotherapy.