Miscellaneous conditions of the peritoneal cavity--peritoneal tumors, pseudomyxoma, mesothelioma, fibroblastic reaction, cocoon, cystic lymphatic malformations, blue-bleb, and chylous ascites

Our plain-English summary of Miscellaneous conditions of the peritoneal cavity--peritoneal tumors, pseudomyxoma, mesothelioma, fibroblastic reaction, cocoon, cystic lymphatic malformations, blue-bleb, and chylous ascites, by S. Dayal, D. Ghosh, B. Moran (Seminars in Pediatric Surgery, 2014).

The study

• Authors: S. Dayal, D. Ghosh, B. Moran
• Journal: Seminars in Pediatric Surgery
• Published: 2014;23(6):363-8
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

The peritoneum is subject to both primary neoplasia and secondary malignancy from direct, trans-coelomic, or hematogenous spread from any cancer. The knowledge base in the pediatric age group is very limited due to the rarity of peritoneal conditions in children, and much of the information is extrapolated from adult literature. There have been few reports in the pediatric population on the diagnosis and management of peritoneal conditions including peritoneal malignancy. In this article, we aim to highlight some of these conditions and the treatments available with a special emphasis on the evolving role of cytoreduction surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in the treatment of certain peritoneal malignancies in children.

Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In plain English

This article was a narrative review of rare conditions of the peritoneum, the lining of the abdomen, in children. The authors worked at a UK peritoneal malignancy centre and an Australian children's hospital. The review covered peritoneal tumors, including mesothelioma, pseudomyxoma peritonei, desmoplastic small round cell tumors, rhabdomyosarcoma, ovarian tumors and neuroblastoma. It also covered non-cancer conditions such as encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis, blue rubber bleb nevus syndrome, cystic lymphatic malformations and chylous ascites. Its focus was tumor-removal surgery combined with heated chemotherapy placed in the abdomen. The article did not study asbestos. As background, it noted that pleural mesothelioma has been linked with asbestos exposure. The authors described five female patients aged 16 to 20, out of more than 1200 treated at Basingstoke. None had mesothelioma, all had complete tumor removal, and none had grade III or IV postoperative complications. Two later died of spreading cancer. The authors noted that knowledge in children is very limited and that much of the information is extrapolated from adult literature. They concluded that encouraging adult results had been replicated in young adults and children, with justified hope for selected patients.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Narrative review of peritoneal conditions in children, with a short description of five young patients treated at the authors' centre
• Who was studied: Children with peritoneal conditions, drawn from published literature. The authors' own case material was 5 patients aged 20 or under, out of more than 1200 patients treated at the Peritoneal Malignancy Institute, Basingstoke, UK.
• Exposure: No asbestos exposure was studied. The only mention of asbestos is a background statement, citing another source, that pleural mesothelioma has been linked with asbestos exposure, often decades earlier.
• Main results:
  • Among the 5 Basingstoke patients aged 20 or under, all female, the diagnoses were granulosa cell tumour, rhabdomyosarcoma, colon adenocarcinoma, immature teratoma and appendiceal mucinous cystadenocarcinoma. None had mesothelioma.
  • Two of the 5 young Basingstoke patients developed systemic metastatic disease and died, one 7 months and one 17 months later.
  • The authors interpreted these few cases as suggesting that the surgery-plus-heated-chemotherapy approach has potential in selected young patients.
  • The review stated, as general background, that mesothelioma is more common in adults and rarely seen in children.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that encouraging results from adults had been replicated in young adults and children, with justified hope for selected patients.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Knowledge of these conditions in children is very limited because they are rare, and much of the information is extrapolated from adult literature.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Peritoneal Cavity, Mesothelioma, Ascites, Peritoneum, Hematogenous Spread, Cytoreductive Surgery, HIPEC.

Related studies

• Loose mesothelial cysts in the peritoneal cavity — Y. Ramirez, J. Rosai, et al. (2010)
• Multiple cystic tumors throughout the abdominal and pelvic cavity — S.C. Yu, C.H. Wu, et al. (2012)
• Length-dependent pathogenic effects of nickel nanowires in the lungs and the peritoneal cavity — C.A. Poland, F. Byrne, et al. (2012)
• Benign cystic peritoneal mesothelioma incorrectly diagnosed as an ovarian borderline mucinous tumor of intestinal type at transvaginal preoperative ultrasound evaluation — A.C. Testa, G.F. Zannoni, et al. (2011)
• The Delphi and GRADE methodology used in the PSOGI 2018 consensus statement on Pseudomyxoma Peritonei and Peritoneal Mesothelioma — R.J. Lurvink, L. Villeneuve, et al. (2021)
• Overall survival of pseudomyxoma peritonei and peritoneal mesothelioma patients after cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy can be predicted by computed tomography quantified sarcopenia — A. Galan, P. Rousset, et al. (2018)

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