HIPEC Procedure

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MrsCollazo
MrsCollazo Member Posts: 6
in Colorectal Cancer #1

My husband has had a recurrence of cancer in his colon at the same location of the surgery and a couple of tumors where spotted on the abdominal wall...  Once we found out the cancer had returned, the Oncologist recommended a new cocktail and to complete four treatments of chemotherapy, then we will rescan to determine how the cancer responded (Out Cancer! Out!)…  We just completed our second chemotherapy session on New Year’s Eve! 

In talking with our surgeon last month (when we completed our one year follow-up from when he was diagnosed & surgery in 2013), he suggested that we talk with another surgeon who performs the HIPEC procedure.  We have done some immediate research and even watched a video on the procedure.  

We will meet with her on Wednesday Jan 7th to determine risks, next steps, etc.  Our surgeon stated he gave her my husband’s file and would determine if the was a good candidate.  We “think” he is as she did schedule an appointment with us.  She could have told us “no” on the phone, right?  I’m hoping he is a good candidate as we will need to journey south of our home a couple of hours to meet with her.  We will drive down after work, stay the night and meet with her in the morning.    

What I would like to hear from the beautiful network is any thoughts or experience regarding this procedure.   I would like to hear from the patient and (selfishly) from the caregivers!  LOL! 

When did you have the procedure?  What did they remove?  How long did it take?  What was the recovery time?  And other hindsight issues?  Any questions that need to be asked of the surgeon?   

Thank you all for your thoughts and experiences...  I am so blessed to have this network and pray for each and every one you!  

United in the Fight,

~Mrs!

Comments

  • abrub
    abrub Member Posts: 2,174 Member
    #2
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    HIPEC needs an expert

    You mentioned "she" - is it Dr. Lambert?  She is super!  HIPEC is one of the treatments of choice for appendix cancer.  I didn't have HIPEC, I had non-heated post-op intraperitoneal chemo (same function, same idea.)  In terms of organs removed - it depends on the dr and where tumor is found.  My opentum was removed along with parts of my colon, and all of my female parts.  My spleen and gall bladder were left alone.

    Best wishes,

    Alice

  • MrsCollazo
    MrsCollazo Member Posts: 6
    #3
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    abrub said:

    HIPEC needs an expert

    You mentioned "she" - is it Dr. Lambert?  She is super!  HIPEC is one of the treatments of choice for appendix cancer.  I didn't have HIPEC, I had non-heated post-op intraperitoneal chemo (same function, same idea.)  In terms of organs removed - it depends on the dr and where tumor is found.  My opentum was removed along with parts of my colon, and all of my female parts.  My spleen and gall bladder were left alone.

    Best wishes,

    Alice

    Thank YOU!

    I see!  That is good information.  Thank you for your experience and feedback.  But "she" is Dr Kavanagh in California.   

  • Annabelle41415
    Annabelle41415 Member Posts: 6,742 Member
    #4
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    Welcome

    Just wanted to welcome you and sorry you had to join.  I'm not able to help you with the procedure you are asking about but if he has this procedure, I'm wishing him the best outcome.  Please continue to update us and let us know how he is doing.

    Kim

  • traci43
    traci43 Member Posts: 773 Member
    #5
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    HIPEC

    I had HIPEC in 2009 after a recurrence of stage IV colon cancer.  I was Dr. Kavanaugh's 12 or 14th HIPEC patient.  She is good and conservative.  She removed a bit of omentum remaining after my 2007 surgery, my appendix and gall bladder.  The appendix was fine but abnormally long.  the gall bladder generally doesn't like having HIPEC, so many surgeons remove it. The only tumors found during the surgery were on my omentum. My remission lasted 12-14 months before I was back on chemo having peritoneal tumors in my rectal area.  From what others are saying, HIPEC works better on appendix cancer tumors because they are surface tumors.  Colon cancer tumors go into the tissue, so the chemo doesn't hit them as hard.  Still I know someone that is now 6 years cancer free after HIPEC with Dr. Sugarbaker who developed the procedure.  She, too, had stage IV colon cancer with mets to the peritoneum like me.

    The surgery is long, around 10 hours for me.  You're in the hospital for 10 days so that they can watch for post-surgery complications.  After surgery they pump you full of saline to flush out any remaining chemo and you swell up like the Michelin man.  My hospital bracelet was so tight it almost cut my skin and by the time I left, I could slip it off my wrist.  I got up and walked as much as I could and by the time I left I was bored of being there.  You spend at least 2 days in ICU while they are flushing your body, you will be on a ventilator to help you breathe.  This is because you were under for so long, it takes a while to get ot out of your system.  Once awake, I would write things to the nurses until they took it out.  I had a tunnel epidural that was a life saver.  No pain post surgery and after they removed it a week later, I never needed pain pills.

    I did read studies that showed that you have a better outcome with a surgeon that had done at least 150 HIPEC surgeries.

    Hope the chemo works for your husband.  Best of luck to him.  Traci

    PS - Where is Dr. Kavanaugh practicing now?  I went to Kaiser-Santa Clara, it was a nice new hospital.  Tell her Hi from Traci.

     

     

  • RobinF
    RobinF Member Posts: 17
    #6
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    Looking at HIPEC too

    dx stage 4 with mets to peritoneum in late Sept, I'm about halfway through my FOLFOX tx. My onc suggested i look into HIPEC once im done with FOLFOX and cancer is well controlled so i can take the risk of no chemo for a bit. My 2 mos scan was clear, so am hoping for surgery next fall. Am looking to set up exploratory appt with the surgeon in the next month. 

    Am definitely in hearing about others experiences with HIPEC. 

    Robin

  • traci43
    traci43 Member Posts: 773 Member
    #7
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    RobinF said:

    Looking at HIPEC too

    dx stage 4 with mets to peritoneum in late Sept, I'm about halfway through my FOLFOX tx. My onc suggested i look into HIPEC once im done with FOLFOX and cancer is well controlled so i can take the risk of no chemo for a bit. My 2 mos scan was clear, so am hoping for surgery next fall. Am looking to set up exploratory appt with the surgeon in the next month. 

    Am definitely in hearing about others experiences with HIPEC. 

    Robin

    I've had HIPEC

    Robin - Did you have your mets surgically removed or are you just using chemo?  The reason I ask is, they will only do HIPEC if you have peritoneal mets present.  Studies show that these mets should be localized and not spread throughout the abdomen for best results.  It's a tough, but doable surgery.  Good luck to you, Traci

  • RobinF
    RobinF Member Posts: 17
    #8
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    traci43 said:

    I've had HIPEC

    Robin - Did you have your mets surgically removed or are you just using chemo?  The reason I ask is, they will only do HIPEC if you have peritoneal mets present.  Studies show that these mets should be localized and not spread throughout the abdomen for best results.  It's a tough, but doable surgery.  Good luck to you, Traci

    Traci, the mets were not

    Traci, the mets were not remonpved surgically, on chemo for those. The mets were small to start with and are not currently showing on my CT scan from earlier in January. im definitely looking forward to meeting with the surgeon to learn more. Thanks. 

  • traci43
    traci43 Member Posts: 773 Member
    #9
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    RobinF said:

    Traci, the mets were not

    Traci, the mets were not remonpved surgically, on chemo for those. The mets were small to start with and are not currently showing on my CT scan from earlier in January. im definitely looking forward to meeting with the surgeon to learn more. Thanks. 

    Good luck to you!

    Robin - I hope you have good news when you see the surgeon.  We're here if you need us.  Traci

  • annalexandria
    annalexandria Member Posts: 2,571 Member
    #10
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    I am no expert on any of this,

    but I wonder why HIPEC vs conventional surgery?  I know HIPEC is the recommended approach with peritoneal seeding (I've known several people with spots all over the peritoneum who had it done), as chemo doesn't seem to do much with this, but when I had localized recurrence with just a couple of spots on the peritoneum, I had it removed surgically.  My oncologist felt that HIPEC was a rough procedure to get through, and that, given the limited spread, it was better to do it this way.

    But again, I don't know too much about this.  I think if it was me, I would want some numbers for outcomes, HIPEC vs regular surgery, before making the call.  A discussion of what recovery is like in each case might also be useful.

    Good luck, and let us know how it all works out~AA

  • LA22
    LA22 Member Posts: 1
    #11
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    traci43 said:

    HIPEC

    I had HIPEC in 2009 after a recurrence of stage IV colon cancer.  I was Dr. Kavanaugh's 12 or 14th HIPEC patient.  She is good and conservative.  She removed a bit of omentum remaining after my 2007 surgery, my appendix and gall bladder.  The appendix was fine but abnormally long.  the gall bladder generally doesn't like having HIPEC, so many surgeons remove it. The only tumors found during the surgery were on my omentum. My remission lasted 12-14 months before I was back on chemo having peritoneal tumors in my rectal area.  From what others are saying, HIPEC works better on appendix cancer tumors because they are surface tumors.  Colon cancer tumors go into the tissue, so the chemo doesn't hit them as hard.  Still I know someone that is now 6 years cancer free after HIPEC with Dr. Sugarbaker who developed the procedure.  She, too, had stage IV colon cancer with mets to the peritoneum like me.

    The surgery is long, around 10 hours for me.  You're in the hospital for 10 days so that they can watch for post-surgery complications.  After surgery they pump you full of saline to flush out any remaining chemo and you swell up like the Michelin man.  My hospital bracelet was so tight it almost cut my skin and by the time I left, I could slip it off my wrist.  I got up and walked as much as I could and by the time I left I was bored of being there.  You spend at least 2 days in ICU while they are flushing your body, you will be on a ventilator to help you breathe.  This is because you were under for so long, it takes a while to get ot out of your system.  Once awake, I would write things to the nurses until they took it out.  I had a tunnel epidural that was a life saver.  No pain post surgery and after they removed it a week later, I never needed pain pills.

    I did read studies that showed that you have a better outcome with a surgeon that had done at least 150 HIPEC surgeries.

    Hope the chemo works for your husband.  Best of luck to him.  Traci

    PS - Where is Dr. Kavanaugh practicing now?  I went to Kaiser-Santa Clara, it was a nice new hospital.  Tell her Hi from Traci.

     

     

    Dr. Kavanaugh

    Hi Traci.. I saw your post about having your surgery done with Dr. Kavanaugh back in 2009. I am scheduled for Feb 10th with her at Kaiser in Santa Clara. I don't really know much about her and sure hope she's had alot more practice shince your surgery. I do know that she is pregnant because she needed to reschedule due to not being able to be around the chemo.

    Hope all of the cancer is cleaned out of you. I have appendix cancer and am mostly doing the surgery for a "what if" reason.

    Thanks for sharing your story... it helps others like me.

    I'll tell her Traci said hi.

  • sndky01
    sndky01 Member Posts: 2
    #12
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    HIPEC in my future

    I was diagnosed with apendix cancer stage IV after surgery in October 2015. The doc wants to send me to MD Anderson in Texas for the

    HIPEC procedure after 6 rounds of chemo here in Florida. I am very uncertain and new to all of this. And scared. Guess I just want to say

    Hi. and thanks for being here and sharing your experiences.

    Thanks.

  • traci43
    traci43 Member Posts: 773 Member
    #13
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    sndky01 said:

    HIPEC in my future

    I was diagnosed with apendix cancer stage IV after surgery in October 2015. The doc wants to send me to MD Anderson in Texas for the

    HIPEC procedure after 6 rounds of chemo here in Florida. I am very uncertain and new to all of this. And scared. Guess I just want to say

    Hi. and thanks for being here and sharing your experiences.

    Thanks.

    Welcome

    Sorry you're here but there's good info out there.  HIPEC was really developed for appendix cancer and thus has the best results.  You're going to MD Anderson, so that's good too.  I know there's a good HIPEC surgeon there, can't remember the name.  It's a big surgery so try to keep active, it will help you to recover.  Expect about 10 days in the hospital, at least 2 in ICU.  After surgery they will pump you full of fluid to flush out any remaining chemo so expect to blow up.  My wrist band was so tight at one point, but I could slide it off by the time I left.  Good luck and keep us posted.  Traci

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