RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, often accompanied by peritoneal metastasis. This work aimed to investigate the clinical efficacy of intraperitoneal perfusion of fluorouracil and cisplatin combined with intravenous chemotherapy for the treatment of peritoneal metastasis in GC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 286 patients with primary GC admitted to the hospital from March 2017 to December 2020 were recruited in the study. A 1:1 matched case-control study was conducted, with the normal control (NC) group and experimental (E) group being composed of patients who underwent the corresponding treatment for primary GC with surgery within 2 months and the same pathological tumor-node-metastasis (pTNM) stage. The NC group consisted of 143 patients receiving only intravenous chemotherapy, while the E group consisted of 143 patients receiving intraperitoneal perfusion of fluorouracil and cisplatin combined with intravenous chemotherapy. Baseline characteristics, clinical efficacy, complications, peritoneal recurrence and metastasis, disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) of the patients, as well as their quality of life (QoL) after chemotherapy, were compared between groups. RESULTS: After six cycles of chemotherapy, DFS was observed in both groups (70% vs. 59%; 48% vs. 29.7%; p<0.05), so did OS (85.7% vs. 85.4%; 73.1% vs. 69.3%; p>0.05). The total effective rate of treatment in the E group (46.15%) was drastically superior to that in the NC group (27.97%), and the total recurrence and metastasis rate of the E group (23.08%) was markedly inferior to that of the NC group (83.9%) (p<0.05). The total incidence of adverse reactions in the E group (11.89%) was considerably inferior to that in the NC group (35.66%) (p<0.05). In addition, the E group had markedly superior scores for physical function (PF), emotional function (EF), role function (RF), social function (SF), and cognitive function (CF) than the NC group (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Intraperitoneal perfusion of fluorouracil and cisplatin combined with intravenous chemotherapy for the treatment of peritoneal metastasis in GC had certain benefits for patients and is worth applying in clinical practice.