Five-year results of a randomized trial of adjuvant HIPEC for locally advanced colon cancer

It is not clear whether adjuvant hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) might prevent peritoneal metastases after curative surgery for high-risk colon cancer. The multicenter COLOPEC trial in The Netherlands randomized patients with T4N0-2M0 or perforated colon cancer to either adjuvant systemic chemotherapy plus HIPEC (n=100) or systemic chemotherapy alone (n=102). The median follow-up was 59 months. There were no significant differences between the groups in 5-year overall survival (69.6% versus 70.9%; p= 0.692), peritoneal metastasis rate (63.9% versus 63.2% (p=0.907), disease-free survival (55.7% versus 52.3%; p=0.875), or quality-of-life outcomes. The authors conclude that adjuvant HIPEC for colon carcinoma should still be performed in trial setting only.