LAUSR

Background Perforated or pT4 colonic tumors have a bad prognosis with a high rate of relapse, including peritoneal relapse (20–30%). Our aim is to analyze the effectiveness of Second Look surgery (SLS) + hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in these patients for early treatment of peritoneal relapse (PR) or for preventing it. Patients and methods Patients previously operated for colon cancer, either pT4 or perforated (M0), with no evidence of disease at any level after adjuvant chemotherapy, who undergo systematic SLS + HIPEC (Oxaliplatin 30 min) one year after the initial surgery. Results Since February 2014 to July 2018, we performed SLS + HIPEC in 42 patients with M0, either pT4 (n = 33) or perforated (n = 9) colon cancer. Although during SLS there were suspicious lesions in 15 cases (37.5%), they were histologically confirmed in only 4 (9.5%). Histologically confirmed peritoneal relapse (PR) rate at SLS was 6% in pT4 (2/33) and 22.2% in perforated tumors (2/9). Prophylactic HIPEC was performed in all the cases. There was no postoperative mortality. Grade III-IV morbidity occurred in 19% (8/42). With a median follow-up of 33.8 months after primary tumor surgery, 6/42 patients (14.3%) presented peritoneal relapse (PR). 3-year peritoneal disease free survival was 86%, with 3-year disease free survival of 78.6% and 5-year overall survival (OS) of 97.4%. Conclusion Peritoneal relapse and survival rates are remarkable in these groups of, a priori, very bad prognosis, which could suggest a beneficial effect of HIPEC.