Is there a possibility of a cure in patients with colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis amenable to complete cytoreductive surgery and intraperitoneal chemotherapy?

BACKGROUND: Although a randomized trial demonstrated a survival benefit of cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and intraperitoneal chemotherapy (IPC) over systemic chemotherapy alone, the treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis from colorectal cancer (CRPC) is still a matter of debate. The aims of this study were to evaluate long-term outcome after CRS and IPC and to identify the prognostic factors associated with a cure.
METHODS: Patients were considered cured if the disease-free survival interval lasted at least 5 years after the treatment of CRPC or its last recurrence. Patients who had died postoperatively, or from non-cancer-related deaths, or patients with a follow-up of less than 5 years since the last curative treatment were excluded from the analysis.
RESULTS: From 1995 to 2006, 107 patients (median age, 48 years; range, 19-67 years) underwent complete CRS, followed by IPC. Postoperative complications occurred in 50 patients (53%), including 4 postoperative deaths. After a median follow-up of 77 months (range, 60-144 months), 5-year and 10-year overall survival rates were 35% and 15%, respectively. Seventeen patients (16%) were considered cured after a disease-free interval of at least 5 years, of whom 14 never developed a recurrence. Cured patients had a significantly lower median peritoneal cancer index than noncured patients, respectively 4 (3-16) and 12 (2-36) (P = 0.0002). In multivariate analysis, a peritoneal cancer index of 10 or less was the only independent factor predicting cure.
CONCLUSIONS: The cure rate (16%) after complete CRS of colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis, followed by IPC, in selected patients is close to that obtained after resection of colorectal liver metastases.