Objectives: From a theoretical viewpoint, intraperitoneal therapy in patients with ovarian cancer, a malignancy, which remains mainly confined to the peritoneal cavity is logical. Intraperitoneal catheters have moved to the forefront as a delivery system in cancer treatment.
Design: The authors sought to evaluate effects of intraperitoneal chemotherapy (IPC) as a second line therapy for ovarian cancer patients.
Material and methods: From January 1996 to January 2002, 92 patients with recurrent or persistent cancer, after surgery, and first line chemotherapy, were treated with intraperitoneal chemotherapy as a second-line treatment. Only 74 were included in the study, due to incomplete of therapy (6 patients), spontaneous fold-out of catheter (3 patients), five patients were treated because of some other kind of carcinomas, three patients passed away during therapy because of independent reasons, and weren't be verified and a patient who had wrong pathological diagnosis in SLL.
Results: The three year survival in the whole group reached 58.62% for patients who responded to the first line chemotherapy, or when the debulking surgery was completed, which was a significant improvement in survival. There was a significant improvement in survival for patients with residual tumor < 5 mm compared with the whole group, and especially with these, whose residual tumors were greater then 5 mm.
Conclusions: 1. Survival was increased for patients who had a positive response to the first line intravenous chemotherapy, or had complete a debulking surgery 2. The response for IPC depends on the size of residual disease. 3. Intraperitoneal chemotherapy improves survival in ovarian cancer.