The Center for Peritoneal Carcinomatosis at Hanusch Hospital in Vienna, Austria is the largest Austrian surgical oncology department in treating peritoneal surface malignancies. An interdisciplinary team around senior consultant Dr. Koppitsch offers HIPEC and PIPAC, which stands for “hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy” and “pressurized intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy", as an important treatment for the following tumor entities causing peritoneal metastasis:
- Ovarian cancer
- Pseudomyxoma
- Colorectal Cancer
- Gastric Cancer
- Mesothelioma
- Primary Peritoneal Tumors
What is HIPEC?
Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is a highly concentrated, heated chemotherapy treatment that is delivered directly to the abdomen after cytoreduction, which means complete resection of tumor tissue, taking several hours in the operation theatre. Unlike systemic chemotherapy delivery, which circulates throughout the body, HIPEC delivers chemotherapy directly to cancer cells in the abdomen. This allows higher doses of chemotherapy treatment direct at the tumor. 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. It is circulated throughout the abdomen for approximately 60 to 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, without disease involvement outside of the abdomen.
What is PIPAC?
PIPAC stands for Pressurised IntraPeritoneal Aerosol Chemotherapy and is a type of chemotherapy given directly into a patient's abdomen during a laparoscopy. After PIPAC is given it stays inside the abdomen for 30 minutes, with the whole operation taking around two hours.
PIPAC operations are repeated every 4-6 weeks. It's not usually a treatment used on its own, so most patients continue to take their normal chemotherapy too.
PIPAC is a treatment option for people who have advanced surface spread of cancer within the abdomen, without the initial option for cytoreduction and HIPEC.