Role of Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy Combined with Cytoreductive Surgery as Consolidation Therapy for Advanced Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Background Patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer who undergo incomplete surgery followed by six cycles of chemotherapy could benefit from second-look or consolidation cytoreductive surgery (CCRS). The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the overall survival (OS) in patients undergoing complete CCRS and the factors affecting survival. The secondary goal was to study the benefit of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in these patients. Methods This was a retrospective analysis of 173 patients with CCRS with ( n = 118) or without ( n = 55) HIPEC treated at 12 French centers. Only patients having a completeness of cytoreduction (CC) 0/1 resection and a minimum of 5 years of follow-up were included. HIPEC was performed systematically for all patients except those treated at the four centers that did not perform HIPEC. Results The median Peritoneal Cancer Index was 6 (range 0–33). Closed HIPEC was performed in 59 (34.1%) patients and open HIPEC was performed in 56 (32.3%) patients. Grade 3–4 complications occurred in 64 (36.9%) patients. The median OS was 35.67 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 29.8–46.1) and was significantly longer for CCRS + HIPEC (31.4 months without HIPEC and 42.5 months with HIPEC; p = 0.022). On multivariate analysis, closed HIPEC (hazard ratio [HR] 0.46, 95% CI 0.29–0.73; p < 0.001) resulted in a longer OS, and age > 65 years (HR 2.17, 95% CI 1.14–4.11; p = 0.018) and bowel resection (HR 1.98, 95% CI 1.27–3.08; p = 0.020) led to a shorter OS. On multivariate logistic regression analysis, closed HIPEC (odds ratio 0.18; p = 0.001) was associated with a lower risk of dying at 5 years. Conclusions CCRS was performed with an acceptable morbidity and resulted in good overall survival. The role of HIPEC in addition to CCRS should be evaluated in prospective, randomized studies and the closed technique prospectively compared with the open technique.