ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Gastric cancer (GC) with peritoneal metastases (PMs) is a poor prognostic evolution. Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) yields promising results, but the impact of hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) remains controversial. Here we aimed to compare outcomes between CRS-HIPEC versus CRS alone (CRSa) among patients with PMs from GC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: From prospective databases, we identified 277 patients with PMs from GC who were treated with complete CRS with curative intent (no residual nodules > 2.5 mm) at 19 French centers from 1989 to 2014. Of these patients, 180 underwent CRS-HIPEC and 97 CRSa. Tumor burden was assessed using the peritoneal cancer index. A Cox proportional hazards regression model with inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) based on propensity score was used to assess the effect of HIPEC and account for confounding factors. RESULTS: After IPTW adjustment, the groups were similar, except that median peritoneal cancer index remained higher in the CRS-HIPEC group (6 v 2; P = .003). CRS-HIPEC improved overall survival (OS) in both crude and IPTW models. Upon IPTW analysis, in CRS-HIPEC and CRSa groups, median OS was 18.8 versus 12.1 months, 3- and 5-year OS rates were 26.21% and 19.87% versus 10.82% and 6.43% (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.42 to 0.86; P = .005), and 3- and 5-year recurrence-free survival rates were 20.40% and 17.05% versus 5.87% and 3.76% (P = .001), respectively; the groups did not differ regarding 90-day mortality (7.4% v 10.1%, respectively; P = .820) or major complication rate (53.7% v 55.3%, respectively; P = .496). CONCLUSION: Compared with CRSa, CRS-HIPEC improved OS and recurrence-free survival, without additional morbidity or mortality. When complete CRS is possible, CRS-HIPEC may be considered a valuable therapy for strictly selected patients with limited PMs from GC.