The European contribution to "Sugarbaker's protocol" for the treatment of colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis.

INTRODUCTION: In 1981, Dr. PH Sugarbaker, challenging oncological orthodoxy, considered carcinomatosis to be a locoregional stage of the disease that was still susceptible to treatment with curative intent. To this end he developed a new therapeutic alternative based on the combined treatment. The macroscopic disease treated by maximum radical oncological cytoreductive surgery (through the peritonectomies described by him), followed by treatment of the residual microscopic disease with the direct intra-abdominal application of intraoperative chemotherapy with locoregional intensification, modulated by hyperthermia and early normothermic postoperative intra-abdominal chemotherapy. Using this new therapeutic regimen, known as "Sugarbaker s Protocol", his group has reported 45% survival rates in carcinomatosis of colorectal origin at 5 years, and, in selected groups of patients, 50% survival rates at 5 years. The scientific community, however, has criticized these results considering that: it is a personal experience, with a not homogenous treatment protocol with developmental modifications over time, that it is a retrospective non-randomized study, and finally that the cytostatics used in his protocol are obsolete. Various European groups have replied to these main criticisms confirming the good results that this new therapeutic alternative offers for patients with carcinomatosis of colorectal origin. The purpose of this article is to present these contributions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: All the articles published in the English language by European groups in the world s medical literature have been reviewed using the Pubmed-MEDLINE database to identify the relevant articles related to the treatment of carcinomatosis of colorectal origin using cytoreduction and intraperitoneal chemotherapy from January 1980 to January 2008. RESULTS: The European contribution during these 25 years in favour of the "Sugarbaker s Protocol" has consisted fundamentally in: a) one multicenter retrospective study; b) two randomized prospective phase III studies; and c) the use of oxaliplatin and irinotecan as new cytostatic agents in the protocols for intraperitoneal chemotherapy. At the same time, two new transcendental European contributions have been made in which the possibility has been considered of combined simultaneous treatment for patients with hepatic metastases and carcinomatosis, and the introduction, as a selection factor, of patients responsive to intravenous induction chemotherapy within the regimen of sandwich treatment (with systemic neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy) complementary to intraperitoneal chemotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained by European groups using "Sugarbaker s protocol" and "Elias protocol" with oxaliplatin compel us to request that these treatments be considered by all professionals involved in the treatment of patients with colorectal carcinomatosis as the best treatment currently available for this condition. Furthermore a randomized, prospective, multicenter study should be carried out to clarify its value and the degree of scientific evidence. A validation of this treatment will change, in the future, the dogmatic consideration of carcinomatosis as an incurable disease stage.

[Prevalence and treatment of oncologic disease in the elderly --an impeding challenge]. / Prevalencia y tratamiento de la patología oncológica en el anciano. El reto que se avecina.

Life expectancy in Spain has more than duplicated during the last 20th Century, and is currently 75 years for men and 83 years for women. Predictions on the evolution of the National and global population anticipate a demographic shock in Spain when individuals older than 65 years eventually make up more than 33.5% of the Spanish population by year 2050. It is known that cancer is directly related with age, and that it is a disease of older people -at least 60% of all cancers are diagnosed in patients older than 65 years. The older people group is the most important group of patients in oncologic practice today. Predictions on the aging of the Spanish population show that cancer in the aging patient and its treatment must be considered a first-line health problem. The diagnosis of cancer is not associated with death in the majority of patients. Sixty percent of cancers are globally cured or chronified. This advanced prognosis has its toll not only in the expectancy of treatment but also in subsequent follow-up and post-treatment adverse effects that can be generated. A greater and better knowledge and understanding of the aging process will allow to identify and select those old patients that can benefit from prevention and treatment options, and more importantly will identify those other patients that are not candidates to treatments with curative intention because of their frail status. Progress in surgery, mainly in minimally invasive surgery, and its application to the field of oncologic surgery allows to forecast that a greater number of aging patients will benefit from treatment with curative intent. Age will not be a barrier for adequate treatment in healthy elderly patients, especially in those with long life expectancy and functional reserves. Fighting this healthcare discrimination is one of the main priorities in the strategy of improved health in the elderly. We present in this study and analyze the foreseen changes in the world s population, particularly in Spain; the association between cancer and age with its peculiar specificities; the general criteria for frailty in older patients, the limitations that aging generate for adjuvant treatments, and the new alternatives of treatment to be used in elderly oncologic patients for the most frequent tumors.

Peritoneal carcinomatosis of colorectal origin. Current treatment. Review and update.

Colorectal cancer is the most frequent tumor of the digestive tract. The high incidence of abdominal dissemination; the poor prognosis of these patients, with median survival consistently ranging from 5 to 9 months in all studies of peritoneal carcinomatosis from colorectal cancer; the failure of adjuvant systemic chemotherapy treatment with a maximal survival of 18 months despite the development of new cytostatic drugs, and new combinations of use, make it crucial to search for and develop new treatment strategies. We review the principles of Sugarbaker s treatment protocol, which involves the combination of maximum cytoreductive radical oncological surgery for the treatment of all macroscopically disseminated disease with maximum perioperative intraperitoneal intensification chemotherapy to treat residual microscopic disease. We present the results of several scientific papers, all of them phase II studies with more than 10 patients treated, published in the medical literature by the main groups working in this line of treatment, together with the only phase III study reported and published so far, and finally the results of a recently reported retrospective international multicenter study. With this new alternative therapeutic approach, overall mean survival is 40% at 36 months, and 20% at 5 years. Based on these results, this new therapeutic approach is proposed as the treatment of choice for these unfortunate patients.

Recurrent postoperative perineal hernia: laparoscopic redo mesh repair.

Symptomatic perineal herniation after abdominoperineal resection is a rare complication and its management remains challenging. Recurrent symptomatic perineal hernia after a previous laparoscopic mesh repair is exceptional and no standardized procedure has been deemed the "gold standard of care." To date, this redo laparoscopic mesh repair is only the second report that we could find in the English literature.