Pseudomyxoma peritonei.

Thirty-eight patients with pseudomyxoma peritonei were treated at the M. D. Anderson Hospital, Houston, from 1954 to 1978. The various treatment regimens used have provided actuarial survival rates of 54% at five years and 18% at ten years. Local or regional disease was the cause of death in 68% of patients, and no patient died of metastatic disease. Initial definitive surgery should consist of effective tumor reduction, omentectomy, appendectomy, and, in the female subject, bilateral oophorectomy. Most patients have been treated adjunctively with either fluorouracil or melphalan (L-phenylalanine mustard) depending on the presumed site of origin, but results in a small number of patients treated with either whole abdominal or strip abdominal radiotherapy suggest that this modality may offer improved survival. Treatment with adjunctive radiotherapy alone has provided a five-year survival rate of 75%, compared with 44% for chemotherapy.