[INTRAVENOUS CHEMOTHERAPY VERSUS INTRAPERITONEAL CHEMOTHERAPY IN ADVANCED OVARIAN CANCER: UPDATE ON THE SITUATION WORLDWIDE AND IN ISRAEL]

Ovarian cancer is the second in incidence and the first cause of death. As much as 70% of ovarian cancer patients are diagnosed with advanced disease. The standard treatment of advanced ovarian cancer is a combination of primary optimal debulking (POD) followed by a combined adjuvant chemotherapy treatment. Another optional treatment includes neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by optimal debulking and then adjuvant chemotherapy. The common adjuvant chemotherapy includes a combination of platinum and taxol compounds given intravenously. Other possible treatments which had been evaluated in the past decades include a combination of chemotherapy given intravenously and intraperitoneally. The rationale behind delivering the chemotherapy intraperitoneally is to provide a much higher concentrations of cytotoxic agents in the peritoneal cavity and to reduce the systemic side effects. A number of randomized trials have shown that the combination of IV and IP chemotherapy entails a survival advantage. Most studies included treatment based on cisplatin treatments with/ without taxol given intravenously versus a combined treatment (intravenously and intraperitoneally) of those agents. An advantage of up to 8 months in disease-free survival and 11 months in overall survival was noted in the IP group. On the other hand, this treatment led to a higher rate of side effects, including abdominal pain, electrolyte imbalance and catheter related complications. Despite the inconsistency in the treatment protocols between the different trials comparing intravenous and intra-peritoneal treatment, one cannot ignore the statistical significance between the groups, for disease-free survival and overall survival. That is why, when addressing patients who completed optimal surgery, one needs to conduct a thorough evaluation regarding the complementary chemotherapy treatment. Due to the broad side effect profile, special notice should be taken as to the patient's age, medical history, and performance status after the primary surgery and her ability to endure an aggressive chemotherapy treatment. By doing so, it will be possible to select the ovarian cancer patients who will benefit he most from combining intravenous and intraperitoneal treatment.