HIPEC consists of applying chemotherapy directly on the peritoneum, associated with a high temperature, during surgery.

The new technique "allowed the treatment of a patient diagnosed with gastric carcinoma with peritoneal metastasis, who underwent radical subtotal gastrectomy and peritonectomy with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy", says a press release from Coimbra Hospitals.

HIPEC is normally used in the context of colon carcinoma with peritoneal metastasis.

The use of HIPEC in "gastric carcinoma with peritoneal metastasis is rare, due to the usual great extension of the peritoneal lesions in this disease".

The use of this new technique may constitute a "treatment of choice" for similar cases, allowing an increase in patient survival.

This was the first case of this surgery in the context of gastric carcinoma performed at the General Surgery Service of the CHUC, carried out by the surgical team led by surgeons André Lázaro and Miguel Fernandes.