Another example of less is more comes from the PRODIGE 7 trial presented at the ASCO 2018 Annual Meeting. The trial enrolled 265 French patients with stage IV colorectal cancer with peritoneal carcinomatosis, and no metastases elsewhere in the body. Patients were randomly assigned to receive surgery plus hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) or surgery alone. The majority of patients also received systemic neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy, or both.

Investigators reported the median OS between the two groups was not statistically significant (41.2 months in the non-HIPEC group vs. 41.7 months in the HIPEC group). Median recurrence-free survival was also similar between the two groups (11.1 months vs 13.1).