Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). Mechanisms of action and the role of HIPEC in the treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis.

Peritoneal carcinomatosis represents the advanced, final stage of peritoneal malignancy, although it is often not accompanied by systemic neoplasia. The development of the pharmaceutical industry in combination with advanced surgery techniques has helped to improve the outcome of these patients, considered for a long time without radical resources. Tumoral cytoreduction followed by hypertermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is the treatment of choice for these patients, of course, this beeing done in a multimodal treatment, carefully chosen, following a multidisciplinary consensus. In this article we reviewed the main aspects of HIPEC procedure, describing the main chemotherapeutic agents used, highlighting the role that they play in this oncological treatment. Finally, we have pinpointed the main research lines in this field, which although have a well-established role in recent guidelines, have a great potential for development, with a maximum impact on the prognosis of patients with peritoneal metastases. KEY WORDS: Cytoreductive surgery, Hyperthermia, Intraperitoneal chemotherapy, Pharmacology, Peritoneal metastasis.