Pharmacology of intraperitoneal chemotherapy.

In this review of the pharmacology and clinical application of intraperitoneal drug administration, we have tried to acquaint the reader with the current state of the art. At this juncture it is important to outline briefly some of the major remaining questions. First, as we have discussed, the analysis of tumor penetration is at present poorly formulated and needs more detailed analysis. Second, the current catheter arrangements are adequate but certainly not ideal. Third, there is need for Phase I and pharmacologic data on additional drugs to provide greater flexibility in terms of combination chemotherapy. Finally, and most importantly, there is a need for a series of careful randomized clinical trials to be done which will assess the clinical value of this form of treatment in the situations listed in Table 3.