Sufferers who have gynecologic cancer have brand-new optimism in a creative technology now offered at the Seidman Cancer Center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. A team of cancer specialists, led by Robert DeBernardo, MD, is among the first in the nation to launch a dedicated program using Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) to treat ovarian, endometrial and select other cancers.
Completed immediately following surgery, HIPEC provides heated chemotherapy through a ‘hot bath’ into the abdominal cavity, where it can penetrate diseased tissue directly. Soon after the physician removes all of the visible cancer as practical, a heated, a sterilized chemotherapy solution is distributed throughout the abdomen by way of a technically advanced perfusion system to kill the surviving cancer cells.
“This is a new and potentially revolutionary way of treating women with gynecologic cancers, which tend to be quite responsive to chemotherapy,” says Dr. DeBernardo, gynecologic oncologist at UH Case Medical Center and Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. “Our preliminary data and experience has been overwhelmingly positive and the therapy has been well-tolerated and effective. HIPEC promises to extend lives in a meaningful way.”
HIPEC has been used for years for public health care in patients with colon, pseudomyxomas, malignant mesothelioma and appendiceal cancer, cancers of which in general are usually not receptive to chemotherapy, yet it is now viewed as an encouraging brand new treatment for gynecologic malignancy.