LAUSR

Cytoreduction and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) improve survival of patients with colorectal peritoneal metastases (PM). Careful patient selection is pivotal because this treatment is associated with substantial morbidity, but current selection criteria fail to discriminate sufficiently between patients who will and those who will not benefit. Next to preoperative imaging, which has limited accuracy for detection of PM, selection is based largely on intraoperative assessment of the peritoneal cancer index (PCI). However, selection should ideally take place before surgery. Therefore, identification of practical clinicopathologic prognostic variables is key to optimize treatment for patients with PM. Patients who experience PM despite previous adjuvant chemotherapy after primary tumor resection are thought to benefit less from cytoreduction and HIPEC, and several studies and guidelines exclude these patients from a potentially curative HIPEC treatment. However, no data are available to support clinical decision making for patients with PM. This study evaluated potential clinicopathologic prognostic variables for 175 patients, with special interest in early peritoneal recurrence after previous chemotherapy. PRESENT