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The peritoneal cancer index is the score a surgeon gives the abdomen at operation, region by region, for how much tumour is on its lining. It decides whether stripping the disease out is worth attempting, and it is the number quoted when a specialist centre says a person is or is not a candidate.
How it is scored. The abdomen and pelvis are divided into thirteen regions (numbered 0 to 12 in the original description), and each is given a lesion size score from 0 to 3 by the largest deposit it carries; the scores are added. Thirteen regions at a maximum of 3 each gives a maximum of 39 by arithmetic. The original methodology paper also asks for the preoperative computed tomography to be read region by region, for the viscosity of the tumour (mucinous against solid) and its distribution to be recorded, and for the extent of previous surgery to be scored, because deep dissection without a plan is what makes reoperation hazardous (Jacquet and Sugarbaker 1996).
What the number is used for. It is a selection tool rather than a staging system. PRODIGE 7 admitted patients with an index of 25 or less (Quenet 2021), and in the earlier Dutch randomised trial survival after cytoreduction was much better in people with up to five of seven abdominal regions involved than in those with six or seven (Verwaal 2003). A high index and an incomplete cytoreduction both predict a poor outcome, and the two travel together, because widespread disease is what makes complete removal impossible.
What a reader should take from it. The score is measured at operation, so a laparoscopy is sometimes done first to see whether the full procedure is worth starting. Computed tomography underestimates small-volume disease, which is why the surgical assessment is the one that counts.
Showing the technology this term belongs to: HIPEC / PIPAC (intraperitoneal chemotherapy).
Shares Peritoneal metastases from bowel cancer, CT (computed tomography), Colon cancer (adenocarcinoma of the colon), Rectal cancer and the tags gi, colorectal.
Shares TNM staging, CT (computed tomography), Colon cancer (adenocarcinoma of the colon), Rectal cancer and the tags gi, colorectal.
Shares Peritoneal metastases from bowel cancer, Colon cancer (adenocarcinoma of the colon), Rectal cancer, Colorectal cancer and the tags gi, colorectal.
Shares TNM staging, Colon cancer (adenocarcinoma of the colon), Rectal cancer, Colorectal cancer and the tags gi, colorectal.
Shares TNM staging, Colon cancer (adenocarcinoma of the colon), Rectal cancer, Colorectal cancer and the tags gi, colorectal.
Shares Colon cancer (adenocarcinoma of the colon), Rectal cancer, Colorectal cancer and the tags gi, colorectal.
Shares Colon cancer (adenocarcinoma of the colon), Rectal cancer, Colorectal cancer and the tags gi, colorectal.
Shares Colon cancer (adenocarcinoma of the colon), Rectal cancer, Colorectal cancer and the tags gi, colorectal.