Cytoreductive Surgery

Cytoreductive surgery is a surgical procedure that aims to reduce the amount of cancer cells in the abdominal cavity for patients whose tumors have spread intraabdominally, a condition called peritoneal carcinomatosis. Its ultimate goal is complete gross resection, removing all visible disease from the abdominal cavity, and it is most often used to treat ovarian cancer, though it can be applied to other abdominal malignancies as well. Cytoreductive surgery is frequently combined with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, a pairing that for some cancer diagnoses considerably increases life expectancy and reduces the rate of recurrence; its main developer, surgeon Paul Sugarbaker, is known for this combined approach, often called the Sugarbaker procedure.