Despite a strong rationale for intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy, the actual use of the procedure is limited by the poor penetration depth of the drug into the tissue. Drug penetration into solid tumours is a complex mass transport process that involves multiple parameters not only related to the used cytotoxic agent but also to the tumour tissue properties and even the therapeutic setup. Mathematical modelling can provide unique insights into the different transport barriers that occur during IP chemotherapy as well as offer the possibility to test different protocols or drugs without the need for in vivo experiments. In this work, a distinction is made between three different types of model: the lumped parameter model, the distributed model and the cell-based model. For each model, we discuss which steps of the transport process are included and where assumptions are made. Finally, we focus on the advantages and main limitations of each category and discuss some future perspectives for the modelling of IP chemotherapy.
Keywords: drug transport; intraperitoneal chemotherapy; mathematical modelling; theoretical modelling.