BACKGROUND
Pressurized intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy (PIPAC) is effective for treating solid tumors with peritoneal metastasis. However, PIPAC is not a standard treatment globally and is currently only used in the limited areas.
OBJECTIVE
We performed a survey of surgical oncologists related to PIPAC to evaluate the clinical desire for PIPAC in South Korea, one of the many countries where PIPAC has not yet been introduced.
METHODS
We performed an online survey between November and December 2019. The questionnaire consisted of 20 questions, which were divided into comprehensive, procedure, and cost inquiries including five, 13 and two questions, respectively.
RESULTS
A total of 164 respondents who answered the questionnaire. Among respondents, 41.7-50% majoring in ovarian cancer, pseudomyxoma peritonei, and malignant mesothelioma preferred PIPAC for the curative treatment of primary diseases, whereas 32.7-33.3% majoring in colorectal and hepatobiliary cancers chose it for the palliative treatment of recurrent diseases. Moreover, 66.7-95.2% considered PIPAC appropriate for the cancers the specialized in, and 76-78.7% expected a treatment response of more than 50% and considered grade 1 or 2 minor surgical complications acceptable. Finally, most of the respondents answered the reasonable costs to purchase and implement PIPAC once at between 1,000,000-5,000,000 KRW.
CONCLUSIONS
Although the treatment scope for applying PIPAC was different among Korean surgical oncologists, most of them expected relatively high tumor response rates with minor toxicities through the repeated implementation of PIPAC.