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When Is It Safe to Omit Surgery in Primary Peritoneal Cancer With Small Volume Disease?

  • Gynecologic Cancers (NS Reed, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Primary peritoneal cancer (PPC) is considered a very rare condition, with mesotheliomas deemed the only true PPC when considering the cellular content and embryological derivation of the peritoneum. However, in women, PPC are seen in much greater abundance than that in men and the type of cancer detected is often that of a serous epithelial carcinoma, histologically similar to serous ovarian carcinomas. The management is also similar, i.e. surgery and platin-based chemotherapy. The definition clinically of PPC is that of widespread carcinomatosis with normal-sized ovaries. The carcinomatosis is often extensive, and the only bulk disease may be within the omentum and achieving complete clearance of all disease at primary surgery unlikely. Thus, the concept of using chemotherapy as the main strategy is a reasonable approach and may well be the best single therapeutic option in some patients. This paper reviews the data on PPC and how this approach could be assessed.

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Conflict of Interest

Rachel Pounds declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Sean Kehoe has received compensation from AstraZeneca and Roche for lectures provided, reimbursement from Sanofi Pasteur for attending EUROGIN conference, and has served as a Medical Advisor and Trustee for Ovacome, a UK-based charity for ovarian cancer.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. City Hospital, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, Birmingham, B18 7Q, UK

    Rachel Pounds

  2. School of Cancer Studies, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

    Sean Kehoe

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  1. Rachel Pounds
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  2. Sean Kehoe
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Correspondence to Sean Kehoe.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Gynecologic Cancers

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Pounds, R., Kehoe, S. When Is It Safe to Omit Surgery in Primary Peritoneal Cancer With Small Volume Disease?. Curr Oncol Rep 17, 36 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-015-0463-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-015-0463-z

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