Does timing of intraperitoneal chemotherapy initiation following primary cytoreductive surgery with bowel resection impact outcomes in patients with advanced ovarian cancer?

Objectives. The primary objective of this study is to determine if early administration of intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy and intra-operative insertion of an IP port are associated with increased complications in patients who undergo a bowel resection procedure as part of primary cytoreductive surgery for ovarian cancer. Methods. This was a multi-centre retrospective cohort study, at 2 high volume cancer centers. For our primary outcomes, univariate logistic regression was completed to assess the impact of timing of IP chemotherapy administration and IP port insertion on perioperative complications. Kaplan Meier survival curves were compared using the Log-Rank test. Results. We identified 131 patients treated with IP chemotherapy after bowel resection during primary cytoreduction for advanced ovarian cancer; 75 patients started IP treatment at the first adjuvant chemotherapy, while 56 patients received intravenous (IV) chemotherapy and later transitioned to IP chemotherapy. The majority of patients had stage III/IV disease (87%) and high-grade serous histology (91.6%). Compared to patients who received their first cycle of chemotherapy IV, patients who started with IP chemotherapy were not at increased risk of intra-abdominal infections (8% vs 16% (p = 0.15)), IP port related complications (20% vs 19.6% (p = 0.96)), or anastomotic leak (2.7% vs 3.6% (p = 0.8)). There was a non-statistically significant trend for increased rates of anastomotic leak (5.6% vs 3.3% (p = 0.62)), intra-abdominal infection (16.7% vs 6.7% (p = 0.17)) and IP port related complications (24.1% vs 13.3% (p = 0.21)) in patients who had intra-operative IP port insertion compared to delayed post-operative port insertion. Conclusions. Administration of IP chemotherapy in the first post-operative cycle after bowel resection is not associated with increased post-operative complications in women with advanced ovarian carcinoma undergoing primary cytoreductive surgery. Intra-operative IP port insertion may be associated with a small increase in major complications in this population. (c) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.