Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) Combined with Chemo-Radiation and Cytoreductive Surgery: The First Clinical Experience for Stage IV Metastatic Colon Cancer

J. Canady, M.D., S. Gordon, M.D., T. Zhuang, PhD., S. Wigh, W. Rowe III, PhD., A. Shashurin, PhD., M. Keidar, PhD.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in the world and the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. In 2012 an estimated 103,170 new cases of colon cancer and approximately 40,290 rectal cases were newly diagnosed with 51,690 related deaths from these combined cancers [1]. There is evidence of peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) in 8–10% of these patients at the time of diagnosis and 25% during the progression of their disease [2–5].

PC is associated with a poor prognosis. Patients are considered to have a terminal condition with a 6–10 month median survival time [2–7]. The standard treatment for advanced stage CRC and PC is systemic chemotherapy which is considered palliative with minimal improvement in patient survival. Advanced chemotherapeutic regimens such as FOLFOX have been reported to improve survival to a median of 15.7 months [8, 9].