Retrospective analysis on the safety of 5,759 times of bedside hyperthermic intra-peritoneal or intra-pleural chemotherapy (HIPEC)

The current study was designed to analyze safety of the bedside hyperthermic intra-pleural or intra-peritoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) from September 2007 to July 2015. Total of 5,759 times of bedside HIPEC in 985 cases of malignant pleural or peritoneal carcinomatosis were analyzed. Of them, 1,510 times was given to 315 cases of malignant pleural effusion, while 4,249 times was performed in 402 patients with malignant ascites and 268 patients without ascites (total 670 patients for peritoneal carcinomatosis). In average, patients with pleural effusion was given 5 times bedside HIPEC and stayed in the hospital for 6.7 days; while patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis was given 6 times of HIPEC and stayed in the hospital for 6.5 days. Overall HIPEC-associated mortality was zero. Overall HIPEC-associated incidence of side effect in the intra-pleural HIPEC was 2.0%. Specifically, 0.6% was pneumothorax, 0.3% was cytotoxic agent-induced pleural inflammation, 0.5% was pain at puncture location, and 0.3% was failure of HIPEC procedure. Overall HIPEC-associated incidence of side effect in the intra-peritoneal HIPEC was 2.4%, i.e., failure of HIPEC procedure in 1.3%, pain at puncture location was 0.5%, cytotoxic agent-induced peritoneal inflammation was 0.1%, intestinal obstruction was 0.1% and intestinal perforation was 0.07%. These findings indicated that bedside HIPEC applied in the current study is safe to be performed by a Physician or Oncologist under local anesthesia at a patient's bedside. The procedure is easy to perform and well-tolerated by the patients with late stage cancer or post-surgery recurrent cancer.