HIPEC
Hypertherapy ablation
Hyperthermic
intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is a highly concentrated,
heated chemotherapy treatment that is delivered directly to the
abdomen.
Unlike systemic chemotherapy delivery, which circulates
throughout the body, HIPEC delivers chemotherapy directly to
cancer cells in the abdomen. This allows for higher doses of
chemotherapy treatment. 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.
The heated, sterilized chemotherapy solution is delivered to the
abdomen to penetrate and destroy remaining cancer cells. The
solution is given at 41 to 42 degrees Celsius, about the temperature of a
warm bath. It’s circulated throughout the abdomen for
approximately 1½ hours. 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.
Advantages of HIPEC
- Allows for high doses of chemotherapy
- Enhances and concentrates chemotherapy within the abdomen
- Minimizes the rest of the body’s exposure to the chemotherapy
- Improves chemotherapy absorption and susceptibility of cancer cells
- Reduces some chemotherapy side effects
“Those diseases which medicines do not cure, the
knife cures;
those which the knife cannot cure, fire cures;
and those which fire cannot cure, are to be reckoned
wholly incurable.”
Hippocrates Aphorisms, 400 BCE