Background
At the time of diagnosis, 15-20% of gastric carcinomas are in stage T4 or T4b. Furthermore, 5-20% of patients undergoing potentially curative surgery suffer from synchronous or metachronous peritoneal metastases. To date, neither surgery nor systemic chemotherapy successfully controls peritoneal dissemination, offering a limited impact on survival. Peritoneal metastases are in fact responsible for death in around 60% of gastric cancer patients. Several Eastern studies in the past have focused on HIPEC as a prophylactic measure in patients with serosal extension, nodal involvement and positive peritoneal fluid cytology. Therefore a new multimodal therapeutic strategy based on aggressive surgery plus new locoregional treatment may prolong survival in this particular clinical scenario.
Methods
This study compares the efficacy of prophylactic surgery (radical gastric resection, appendectomy, resection of the round ligament of the liver, and bilateral adnexectomy) plus HIPEC CO 2 versus standard surgery in patients with T3-T4 N0-N+ gastric adenocarcinoma. Patients will be randomly assigned (1:1 ratio) to the experimental arm or standard surgery. The primary endpoint is to establish the difference in disease-free survival between the groups. The secondary objective is to compare the safety and tolerability of prophylactic surgery plus HIPEC CO 2 versus standard surgery.
Discussion
Considering the poor prognosis of patients with peritoneal dissemination from gastric cancer, a prophylactic strategy to prevent peritoneal metastases may be beneficial. In patients with gastric cancer at high risk of peritoneal carcinomatosis, the treatment of minimal or unforeseen peritoneal disease together with primary tumor resection should reduce peritoneal recurrence. We propose aggressive surgical treatment with radical gastric resection, removal of organs at risk of harbouring tumor cells, and HIPEC.