One of the locations that colon cancer can metastasize to is the peritoneum, or the lining of your abdominal cavity, and this is considered to be a stage four disease.
One of the treatment options for peritoneal disease is a surgical procedure called cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). This operation has two parts: cytoreductive surgery, which involves removal of the tumor, and then HIPEC, which is when heated chemotherapy is put into your abdominal cavity. The goal of this operation is to remove visible tumors surgically and then use chemotherapy to target the cancer cells that remain in the peritoneal cavity.
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