KMC Hospitals Treat Cancer Patients using Novel Technique of Cytoreductive Surgery and HIPEC procedure
Mangaluru: In a bid to offer advanced cancer treatments KMC Mangaluru has introduced cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC procedure options for patients who are suffering from a certain type of cancer. Today cancer is one of the deadliest diseases and millions of people are fighting cancer. Usually, 20 – 30% of patients with metastatic cancer survive for 5 years but with the use of this novel procedure among carefully selected patients long-term survival rates have increased to almost 70%. With the use of this advanced technique Dr Harish E Surgical Oncologist, Dr Sanmesh Padman Liver Surgeon, Dr Sanyo D Souza Medical Oncologist and Ganapathi Bhat, Perfusionist at KMC Hospitals, Mangaluru helped patient P Kunhiraman get new lease of life.
Dr Harish E, Surgical Oncologist, KMC Hospitals, Mangaluru said, “Cytoreductive Surgery and Hyperthermic Intra-peritoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) is a treatment option for those patients where extensive surgery is performed to remove all visible cancer tissue followed by chemotherapy drug, heated to 42 degrees Celsius is pumped through the abdominal cavity using a specialized HIPEC machine. With the help of this novel technique, several cancers like the appendiceal/colorectal or ovarian cancers have been controlled very well in several cases.”
He further added, “In this procedure, the initial step is cytoreductive surgery wherein the surgeon removes the tumours from the abdomen, post which high dose of chemotherapy is delivered into the peritoneal cavity. Then the Intrabdominal temperature is raised to 42 degrees that help in deeper penetration of the drug into the tissues up to 3-mm. The main advantage of this procedure is that Chemotherapy comes in direct contact with the tumour cells. Even though a high dose of chemotherapy is given, complications are less compared to intravenous chemotherapy”.
Dr Sanyo Dsouza Medical Oncologist, KMC Hospitals, Mangaluru said “Cancer is often seen as an untreatable and non-curable disease. However, this is just a misconception as various forms of cancer, including metastatic cancer that has spread from the place where it was initially formed to other parts of the body, can be treated effectively. The use of cytoreductive surgery along with HIPEC (Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy) has shown promising results. Cytoreductive surgery in combination with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy improves survival in patients with appendices / colorectal peritoneal metastases compared with systemic chemotherapy alone in carefully selected subsets of patients”.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Anand Venugopal, Medical Superintendent, KMC Hospitals Mangalore said, “It’s a great moment for KMC Hospitals as we are happy to introduce this novel technique for cancer patients. I congratulate the team of doctors for achieving this important milestone. We are constantly innovating to provide world-class treatments to our patrons and we will continue to provide hope for patients.”