Abstract
BACKGROUND: Perforated or pT4 colonic tumors have a bad prognosis with a high rate of relapse, including peritoneal relapse (20-30%). Our aim is to analyze the effectiveness of Second Look surgery (SLS) + hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in these patients for early treatment of peritoneal relapse (PR) or for preventing it. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients previously operated for colon cancer, either pT4 or perforated (M0), with no evidence of disease at any level after adjuvant chemotherapy, who undergo systematic SLS + HIPEC (Oxaliplatin 30 min) one year after the initial surgery. RESULTS: Since February 2014 to July 2018, we performed SLS + HIPEC in 42 patients with M0, either pT4 (n = 33) or perforated (n = 9) colon cancer. Although during SLS there were suspicious lesions in 15 cases (37.5%), they were histologically confirmed in only 4 (9.5%). Histologically confirmed peritoneal relapse (PR) rate at SLS was 6% in pT4 (2/33) and 22.2% in perforated tumors (2/9). Prophylactic HIPEC was performed in all the cases. There was no postoperative mortality. Grade III-IV morbidity occurred in 19% (8/42). With a median follow-up of 33.8 months after primary tumor surgery, 6/42 patients (14.3%) presented peritoneal relapse (PR). 3-year peritoneal disease free survival was 86%, with 3-year disease free survival of 78.6% and 5-year overall survival (OS) of 97.4%. CONCLUSION: Peritoneal relapse and survival rates are remarkable in these groups of, a priori, very bad prognosis, which could suggest a beneficial effect of HIPEC.