PRO: intraperitoneal chemotherapy should be standard-of-care for epithelial ovarian cancer patients

The results of several multi-center cooperative group phase 3 clinical trials have revealed the favorable impact on overall survival associated with the intraperioneal administration of cisplatin-based primary chemotherapy in the management of small volume residual advanced ovarian cancer. These data strongly support the conclusion that regional therapy should be considered a standard-of-care option in this clinical setting. Future research efforts should focus both on decreaseing the toxicity associated with this novel treatment strategy (e.g., substituting carboplatin for cisplatin) and improving efficacy (e.g., exploration of hyperthermic intraperitoneal drug delivery).