Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy

Intraperitoneal chemotherapy is a method wherein the chemotherapy drug is directly administered into the cavity of the abdomen. In this mode of treatment a catheter is passed through the abdominal cavity wall which drains the chemotherapy drug into this cavity. In this case the drug does not pass through the stomach or any other body organs. The patient is then asked to move from side to side or change position from time to time so that the drug is mixed thoroughly in the abdominal cavity.

This movement helps the drug to pass through the tumor, in this case the drug remains in the abdominal cavity for a couple of hours before it is drained off. As the concentration of the drug is high it is more effective to destroy the cancerous cells directly thus preventing toxicity to spread to other parts of the body organs. The quality of life of the patient and the effects of the medication has not shown much difference when the chemotherapy drug is administered into the body via IV method.

Intraperitoneal chemotherapy can be administered in three different ways:

Temporary single use catheters - In this method the catheter is inserted directly into the abdominal cavity wall and is taken out after the completion of the treatment.

Tenckhoff catheters - Here the use of a soft and flexible silicone tube is made use of and inserted into the body through surgery very close to the tumor. The catheter is so placed that it comes in contact with the subcutaneous tissues and the abdominal wall is punctured in such a way that the other end of the catheter comes out through this. The most important factor that you need to take into consideration in this method is that there are chances of peritoneal infections and in some cases the catheter can get blocked in the abdominal cavity.

Port-a-cath - The catheter is placed under the skin lining of the abdominal wall. Here there are multiple holes in the catheter which is inserted right through the subcutaneous tissue which is further passed into the peritoneum glands. The entire inserting procedure takes more than an hour and can be used for nearly five years and the medication can be administered through this with the help a syringe needle.

What are the chemotherapy properties of this mode of treatment?

The drugs that are used have huge molecular structure and pass through the peritoneal plasma easily and get mixed well in the peritoneal cavity of the abdominal wall. As the drug remains in this cavity the toxicity of the drug passing on to the other body organs is greatly reduced.

This mode of treatment can be undergone through surgical process as well or even in the postoperative stage. The only thing that needs to be taken care that the drug that is being administered should expand on heating as heating enhances the effectiveness of the drug thus increasing the level of penetration directly on to the affected area and helps destroy the cancerous cells.

The effectiveness of the drug depends upon the toxic effects that it can create on the tumor cells to induce self-destruction. The major side effect is that there is every chance of infection at the end of the treatment cycle.