Chemotherapy Spray Could Make Surgery Possible for More Peritoneal Mesothelioma Patients
A technique that turns anti-cancer drugs into a chemotherapy spray could be a breakthrough for some peritoneal mesothelioma patients who were told they were not candidates for surgery. The procedure is called PIPAC. It stands for pressurized intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy. It allows doctors to apply cancer-killing medication directly to the site of peritoneal mesothelioma tumors. A new French study suggests that the chemotherapy spray, in combination with systemic chemotherapy, can shrink some tumors enough to completely remove them – even if doctors did not initially think resection was possible. The study tracked several cases of successful surgery after standard chemotherapy and PIPAC. The retrospective study shows patients who had surgery experienced much longer progression-free survival than those who did not. …