Comprehensive treatment comprising neoadjuvant laparoscopic HIPEC (L-HIPEC) and bidirectional intraperitoneal and systemic induction chemotherapy (BISIC) followed by cytoreductive surgery (CRS) for gastric cancer with peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) has been developed. However, its benefits and patient selection criteria have not been thoroughly investigated. We retrospectively reviewed 113 patients, with 25 having received comprehensive treatment (L-HIPEC, BISIC, and then CRS-HIPEC; the BISIC group) and 88 having received direct CRS-HIPEC (the CRS group). The BISIC group showed greater tumor clearance in terms of post-CRS peritoneal cancer index ((PCI) 6 vs. 14, p = 0.002) compared to CRS group. The median survival was 20.0 months in the BISIC group and 8.6 months in the CRS group (p = 0.031). Multivariable analysis revealed that the factors associated with increased survival were the BISIC protocol, age, and post-CRS tumor clearance. BISIC significantly improved survival in cases of moderate severity (PCI 11-20) and severe cases (PCI 21-39) without increasing the morbidity rate. We recommend the use of this neoadjuvant strategy for patients with gastric cancer-associated PC and an initial PCI of >10 to provide superior survival outcomes.
Keywords: bidirectional chemotherapy; cytoreductive surgery; gastric cancer; hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy; peritoneal carcinomatosis.