Benefits of HIPEC

In addition to the number of studies reporting prolonged survival time after Cytoreduction and HIPEC in which abdominal tumours and cancerous tissues are excised, one of the most attractive aspects of this treatment is the less severe side effects than the traditional chemotherapy.

With the traditional chemotherapy, drugs participate in blood circulation and circulate over the whole body. Drugs kill any cell that grows rapidly which is the key point of cancer. A major disadvantage of this approach is that it does not harm rapid proliferating healthy cells that cause well-known chemotherapy side effects such as hair loss and nausea. This means that hair loss and nausea which are the two most vexing side effects are less likely to occur in HIPEC.  In addition, other benefits of HIPEC include:

• More comfortable recovery period and prolonged survival time/possibility than the traditional chemotherapy
• Heat Factor – Researches conducted in laboratories have shown that various drugs are more effective when adjusted to a higher temperature (mild hyperthermia). Since cancerous cells cannot resist against high temperatures, it is believed that heated drugs can penetrate deeper into tumours. Heating the solution in HIPEC can increase the absorption of chemotherapy drugs by tumours and destroy microscopic cancer cells that are still not eliminated after a surgical procedure such as cytoreduction.
• Preventing the resistance to chemotherapy – Researchers have found that HIPEC can overcome the resistance to chemotherapy treatment in various cancers by exposing diseased cells to drugs that kill cancer in the body.
• Possibility for local administration – HIPEC is a locoregional treatment which means that it is a technical method that affects the surfaces only contacted by chemotherapy.
• Applying higher drug concentrations/drug dosages in a safe manner– Since HIPEC drugs stay in the abdominal cavity and do not spread into the other parts of the body, this treatment approach allows doctors to give the body a high dose of drugs. 
• Fewer side effects and more safety – Since the high concentration of chemotherapy solution cannot exceed peritoneal plasma barrier in HIPEC – that is, it cannot go out of the treatment area – there are fewer side effects. It has also been shown that HIPEC treatment reduces some side effects of chemotherapy. 
• It has been shown that HIPEC is successful in destroying cancer cells that are too small to be seen with the naked eye.
• Considering the results of studies and treatments in the last 20 years, it is considered that HIPEC is the most effective approach by assisting the cytoreduction in the treatment of advanced intraabdominal cancer types.