Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) Abroad

It is a highly concentrated, heated chemotherapy treatment that is directly delivered to the abdomen while performing a surgery. Heating the solution may also improve the absorption of chemotherapy drugs by tumors and destroy microscopic cancer cells that remain in the abdomen after surgery.

Patients receiving HIPEC treatment, at first doctors perform cytoreductive surgery (a procedure reduce the size of a cancerous tumor) within the abdomen. When as many tumors as possible have been removed, a heated, sterilized chemotherapy solution is delivered to the abdomen to penetrate and destroy remaining cancer cells.

The solution is 41 to 42 degrees Celsius. It’s circulated throughout the abdomen for approximately 90 minutes. The solution is then drained from the abdomen, and the incision is closed. HIPEC is a treatment option for people who have advanced surface spread of cancer within the abdomen, but no cancer outside the abdomen.