What is Intraoperative Hyperthermic Peritoneal Perfusion (IHPP)?

Surgery is often the first line treatment for abdominal and gynecological cancers. But even with the most meticulous of surgical techniques, microscopic cancer cells can be dislodged or are sometimes left behind, and in time, the cancer comes back.

	Intra-operative set up for IHPP. Once the tumor is surgically removed (cytoreduction), the inside of the abdomen is bathed with heated chemotherapy for 90 minutes.

When cancer recurs or when it is not diagnosed until it is in an advanced stage, an oncologist might recommend chemotherapy or radiation treatment, plus more surgery, to aggressively pursue the malignancy. However, chemotherapy given intravenously or by mouth cannot always reach or adequately affect abdominal or gynecological cancer cells. Radiation is typically used to shrink the tumor’s size.

In recent years, another method of delivering chemotherapy to the abdominal region, Intraoperative Hyperthermic Peritoneal Perfusion (IHPP) (sometimes referred to as Heated Intraoperative Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy or Intraperitoneal Hyperthermic Chemotherapy) has been used following surgery for select, advanced cases of abdominal and gynecological cancer. For many of these patients, only palliative (pain relieving) options remain. While on the operating table, the patient’s open abdomen is bathed with heated chemotherapy for about 90 minutes; then drained. The surgeon closes the incision, after which the patient is taken to a recovery area and then to his or her hospital room.

IHPP patients are seen by their surgeon oncologist for post-operative care and then for follow-up visits every three to four months thereafter. Some patients receive additional systemic chemotherapy, depending on the tumor type and the amount of remaining tumor after cytoreduction and IHPP.

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