HIPEC or Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy is a highly concentrated, heated chemotherapy treatment that is delivered directly to the abdomen during surgery. The procedure is used to operate on tumors present in the abdominal lining that stem from the colon, gastric, ovarian, tumors in the appendix, and other cancers.
Unlike systematic chemotherapy delivery, HIPEC does chemotherapy directly to the cancer cells in the abdomen. This process involves higher doses of chemotherapy treatment. Heating the solution may also improve the absorption of the drugs that are used in chemotherapy and destroy the microscopic cancer cells that remain in the abdomen after the surgery. The process is performed under general anesthesia and lasts for a time of about 6-9 hours depending on the complexity of the case.
HIPEC Treatment at Best Hospital in India is affordable and the services are available in India as well as for the patients overseas. The first PSOGI workshop (India) held in April 2015, in Bangalore, India offered an opportunity for Indian surgeons performing HIPEC to share their experiences. Survey number HIPEC treatment cases show that HIPEC can be performed with acceptable morbidity and mortality in Indian patients.
HIPEC is a new technique in which those abdominal tumors are treated that were previously thought to be uncurable and were only offered comforting care. The indication of HIPEC is therefore very specific and it is meant for those cancer cases of the abdomen in which the disease has spread only inside the abdomen and not through the blood or lymphatic. In these patients, the cancer is seen in the form of sand-like particles over the inner layer of the abdominal cavity called the peritoneal sheath.
