Hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma: The forefront of surgery-based multimodality treatment

Introduction: Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM) is characterized by an aggressive behavior and an inevitably fatal prognosis, whose treatment is still far from being standardized. The role of surgery is questionable since a radical resection is unattainable in most cases. Hyperthermic IntraTHOracic Chemotherapy (HITHOC) combines the advantages of antitumoral effects together with those of high temperature on the exposed tissues with the aim to improve surgical radicality. Material and Methods: this is a narrative review on the role of HITHOC in the management of MPM patients. To provide data on the beginnings and the historical evolution of this technique, we searched the available literature by selecting the more exhaustive papers on this topic. Results: from 1994 to date different authors experimented HITHOC following a cytoreductive surgery in MPM, obtaining in most cases a good local control and a better overall survival associated to very low complication rate. Conclusions: HITHOC may be considered as a safe, feasible and effective procedure although there is a high heterogeneity between different protocols adopted worldwide. More structured studies are needed to reach a unanimous consensus on this technique.