Paul Sugarbaker

Secretary General of PSOGI & Director of Center for Gastrointestinal Malignancies, MedStar Washington Hospital Center

The focus of our research activity has been the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of chemotherapy used perioperatively. The surgery for peritoneal metastases has matured to the point that few advances are currently being published. The great need at this point in time is for a perioperative treatment that will preserve this surgical complete response that is obtained in a majority of patients nowadays. This involves the use of multi-agent chemotherapy, combined intraperitoneal and systemic chemotherapy, prolonged hyperthermia, and an exploration of novel, non-cytotoxic irrigation techniques to clear cancer cells from the peritoneal space. A big breakthrough in the control of microscopic and macroscopic cancer nodules post-cytoreduction within the peritoneal space is the research focus.

Paul H. Sugarbaker is involved with cytoreductive surgery for a wide variety of gastrointestinal and gynecologic malignancies. The unit performs approximately 70 cytoreductions per year as well as surgeries for advanced gastrointestinal malignancies. The most common disease we treat is an appendiceal mucinous neoplasm, then peritoneal metastases from colon cancer, peritoneal metastases from primary but more frequently recurrent ovarian cancer, and then occasionally a carefully selected gastric cancer. Also, we see referrals from unusual diseases that result in peritoneal metastases such as adrenocortical carcinoma and peritoneal mesothelioma.

Washington (D.C.) Cancer Institute at Washington Hospital Center 106 Irving St. NW, Suite 3900, Washington, D.C. 20010

Paul.Sugarbaker@medstar.net
202-877-3908

Back back to top