Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy Comes of Age

Patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer typically receive intravenous taxane and platinum-based chemotherapy in an attempt to eradicate residual disease after surgical debulking. This treatment yields overall median survivals of approximately 37 months in patients with suboptimally debulked disease (residual tumor, >1.0 cm in diameter) and 49 months in those with optimally debulked disease (residual tumor, ≤1.0 cm in diameter).1 Despite high response rates, in most patients relapse occurs, and efforts to improve treatment by escalating the doses of intravenous chemotherapy have been largely unsuccessful.2 In contrast to intravenous drug administration, the intraperitoneal route is capable of achieving high local . . .