Tag Archives: hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy

Dr. Fernando Arias

the meat and potatoes of HIPEC

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So I have returned to the United States and back on assignment for the next couple of months, so it’s time to get down to business.

A couple of new HIPEC articles came out – which I thought readers might enjoy.  For lighter fare, we will start with an article from the Vancouver Sun.

The first article, by Erin Ellis of the Vancouver Sun, is a Canadian fluff piece complete with sensationalistic headlines and dramatic patient interviews designed to draw attention to Vancouver General Hospital’s new HIPEC program.

 Dr. Fernando Arias

Dr. Fernando Arias, Chief of the HIPEC program at Santa Fe de Bogotá

Now for the meat and potatoes

The second article, which is more academically and scientifically based, is  focused on a study presented at the Southern Surgical Association  in December by Levine, et. al. (2014) “Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy for Peritoneal Surface Malignancy: Experience with 1,000 Patients” looks at long-term survival with HIPEC in patients with disseminated peritoneal malignancies.  This study is remarkable for both the duration of the prospective study (which began in 1991) and the large amount of participants for a single site study.  The vast majority of patients enrolled in this study had appendiceal cancer as their primary, but the study also included patients with ovarian, gastric, mesothelioma and colorectal cancers.

The evolution of the procedure and institutional experience led to improved outcomes and reduced complications over the course of the study.  Part of this was due to the development of better patient selection criteria.

This information comes as a ray of hope for patients with these diagnoses and previously given only dismal prognoses.

Dr. Edward Levine, the primary investigator, is the Chief of Surgical Oncology and Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Wake Forest Medical Center in North Carolina.

It was published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, and summarized here, at Heme/Onc Today

Levine, et. al. (2014).  Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy for Peritoneal Surface Malignancy: Experience with 1,000 Patients.  Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 218(4): 573–585 (April 2014).  No free text available.

Additional HIPEC posts: the HIPEC archives 

HIPEC, HIPEC, HIPEC: all about HIPEC

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Now that Case Western has decided to adopt HIPEC for treatment of gynecological cancers (uterine, ovarian, endometrial etc.) they have published an article patting themselves on the back.. 

But truthfully, not bad, case western, not bad at all.. It’s a good article with a nice explanation for people new to Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy – (and I am always happy to see more state-of-the-art treatments offered to people with cancer.)

That’s one of the reasons we’ve championed HIPEC here at Bogota Surgery –  state-of-the-art cancer treatment with an excellent track record according to medical literature and published research.  Too often patients, particularly patients with cancer or other serious medical illnesses are preyed upon with junk or uncertain science, like super-vitamin supplement programs, Laetrile clinics and quasi-futuristic stem-cell therapies.

But HIPEC is different, and it’s been here for quite a while  – with over ten years worth of scientific data to support continued experimentation (large-scale) and use.

We first encountered HIPEC in Bogotá at the hands of Dr. Fernando Arias at Fundacion Santa Fe de Bogotá.  In our continued quest for information (see our series on HIPEC) – he continues to be at the forefront of HIPEC treatment with more experience than doctors like Dr. Trey Blazer at Duke, teams at Case Western, and the other scattered programs throughout the United States.  With the exception of its creator, Dr. David Sugarbaker – Dr. Arias has as much experience, evidence and training as anyone I’ve encountered..

See our tab labelled Cytoreductive Surgery for more on HIPEC