Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy for gastric cancer and other less common disease histologies: is it time?

Gastric cancer is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide, and once spread to the peritoneum, has a 5-year survival of less than 5%. Recent years have demonstrated advances in the use of cytoreductive surgery (CRS) in combination with heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for the treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis due to various malignancies. The frequent desmoplastic stroma and poor vascularization impeding drug delivery particularly in the diffuse form of gastric cancer is thought to provide a sound rationale for a regionalized treatment approach in this disease. Here, we seek to review the available data to define the role of CRS and HIPEC in gastric cancer metastatic to the peritoneal surface, and furthermore, analyze the use of CRS and HIPEC in malignancies less commonly treated with the regionalized perfusion approach.