Mahmoud Shaheen Alahwal.
Quality of life after intraperitoneal chemotherapy for peritoneal Carcinomatosis.
Pak J Med Sci Jan ;21(1):22-5.

Objective: To assess the functional status and quality of life (QOL) of 12 patients with disseminated peritoneal cancer before and after intraperitoneal chemotherapy (IPCT). Design: Patients with confirmed diagnosis of malignant ascites originating from gastrointestinal tract, gynecologic or other malignancies with peritoneal implants were enrolled in this study. Twelve patients completed the Functional Assessment of Cancer therapy scale to assess quality of life and the Visual Analogue scale to assess common symptoms before and after palliative abdominal paracentesis with intraperitoneal chemotherapy (IPCT). Results: Twelve patients enrolled, 8 gastrointestinal, 3 gynecologic malignancies and 1 with pseudomyxoma peritonie. All with terminal advanced stage malignancy. Mean number of days re- quired for palliative abdominal paracentesis before (IPCT) was 6.7 days (3-20 days) while mean number of days after IPCT was 18.9 days (10-35 days). Eleven out of 12 patients had relief of their symptoms and improvement in QOL. Side effects were minimal and tolerable. Conclusion: Intraperitoneal chemotherapy improves QOL and increase the duration required for pal- liative abdominal paracentesis for terminal cancer patients with malignant ascites with minimal toxicity.

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