The Dutch Cancer Society (KWF Kankerbestrijding) has awarded a total of 5.5 million euro to ten Amsterdam UMC research groups for cancer research. One of the project proposals selected is entitled “Improving effectiveness and minimizing toxicity of HIPEC treatment for colorectal peritoneal metastases by applying step-up heating during HIPEC” by principal investigator Dr. Hans Crezee (€ 606.530). Dr. Crezee and his team will investigate if varying the temperature, amount or duration of chemotherapy treatment following surgery for colorectal metastasis can improve the effectiveness of the treatment without increasing side effects.
The research of Hans Crezee and his multidisciplinary team will focus on improving the hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) procedure by investigating whether varying dose and temperature during HIPEC can make treatment more effective, without increasing the risk of side effects. Peritoneal carcinomatosis of colorectal cancer is treated with cytoreductive surgery followed by mitomycin-C or oxaliplatin-based HIPEC schedules at 40–43°C for 30–90 minutes. Novel dynamic HIPEC protocols with sequential variation in dose, temperature and duration will be tested in organoid and in vivo tumor and normal tissue models, followed by a phase I clinical study of the optimal protocol.
