The status of peritoneal based malignancies in asia: results from a survey performed during the 1st introductory workshop on peritoneal malignancies by the Asian Peritoneal Surface Malignancy Group (APSMG)

Abstract

Objectives: The 1st introductory workshop to peritoneal surface malignancies (PSM) was held over two days in April 2017 at the National Cancer Centre Singapore. There were 169 registrants, with more than 80 participants from the regional centres, including Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Korea, India and China. Participants included doctors, nurses and allied health. Three international experts from Europe and Asia were invited to share their experience of managing this disease. Methods: A survey was conducted to ascertain the status of management of PSM in the regional centres. Results: A total of 47 survey forms were completed. The responses included 6 general surgeons (12.7%), 18 colorectal surgeons (38.2%), 19 nurses (40.4%), one surgical oncologist (2.1%), one gynaeoncologist (2.1%), and 2 physicians (4.2%) who did not specify their specialty. Overall, 35 participants (74.4%) responded that they had experience with managing PSM, while 9 participants (19.2%) did not have this experience, and 3 participants (6.3%) choose not to respond. The majority of participants (53.2%) encountered less than 30 cases of PSM a year, while only 11 participants (23.4%) had experience with more than 30 PSM cases a year, and 14 participants (29.8%) choose not to respond. Despite this, 42.5% of participants responded that they were performing less than 20 Cytoreductive Surgery (CRS) and Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) procedures a year, while 4 (8.5%) responded that they were performing 20–30 CRS/HIPEC a year, and only 5 (10.6%) participants were performing more than 30 CRS/HIPEC a year. There were 14 participants (29.8%) that indicated that there were plans to start a PSM service in their institution. When asked what the current standard of care for PSM in their institution was, 20 participants (25.5%) selected CRS/HIPEC, while the remaining participants indicated palliative chemotherapy and debulking surgery. Of the participants who indicated that CRS/HIPEC was the standard of care, the indications included appendiceal, colorectal, mesothelioma, ovarian and gastric cancers.