Hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy (HITHOC): narrative review of the current literature, recommendations and future studies

Although the method of hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy (HITHOC) after cytoreductive surgery is known for more than 20 years now, the interest of the scientific community has been growing especially in recent years with annually increasing numbers of publications. The feasibility and safety of HITHOC has already been demonstrated. The primary objective now is to reach a consent about the optimal implementation and standardization of the procedure. In the international clinical practice of HITHOC the parameters of temperature, duration, type and number of chemotherapeutic agents vary, making a comparison of the short- and long-term results difficult. For about ten years, the combination of surgical cytoreduction and HITHOC has been performed more routinely in several departments of thoracic surgery in Germany, especially in university hospitals. Recently, a group of experts for thoracic surgery of five departments of thoracic surgery elaborated recommendations for the HITHOC procedure in Germany. These recommendations represent a standardized and consistent implementation of HITHOC. Through this, postoperative complications associated to HITHOC should be reduced and a better comparison of the results should be enabled. This article is intended to give a brief overview of the literature, current recommendations in the implementation of HITHOC and also aims to show future perspectives of this procedure.