About PMP

Pseudomyxoma Peritonei is a rare and incurable form of abdominal cancer. It affects about 1 in every 1,500,000 people. To put this into perspective think of it like this: fill a swimming pool with 1,499,999 white marbles and one black marble. Close your eyes and jump in. Grab a marble and climb out of the pool. If you hold the black marble, those are the odds of contracting PMP. You have a better chance of winning the lottery.

PMP starts in the appendix or, in women, sometimes in the ovaries. A polyp will burst through the lining of the appendix into the abdominal cavity, spreading cells that will begin to develop into mucinous tumors. These cells attach themselves to the lining of the abdomen, the organs, basically any available surface. As the tumors begin to grow, they form masses that will eventually expand to the point where the internal organs of the afflicted will be crushed unless the tumors are removed. PMP does not normally spread outside of the abdomen. It does not travel through the lymphatic system like other cancers, and unlike other cancers, the cells that comprise the tumors are actually normal healthy cells, they are just developing in the wrong place. For this reason, chemotherapy does not as work well in treating PMP as it does with other types of cancer.

Treatment normally consists of a series of de-bulking surgeries, sometimes accompanied by a deep chemo wash into the abdominal cavity of the patient to try and target any remaining cells that were not removed by the de-bulking. Typically these surgeries take well upwards of 12 hours to perform. It is not possible for the surgeon to remove every single cancer cell, so eventually the tumors will return, although the time in which this occurs varies greatly from person to person. When the build-up of tumors requires it, another de-bulking surgery is performed, and so on. After four or five surgeries, however, the amount of scar tissue that builds up prevents another. At this point the person is sent home and made as comfortable as possible while they wait for the inevitable.

PMP is rare, and for that reason, not a lot of research is directed towards finding a cure. There are only a handful of surgeons in the United States that specialize in treating PMP. While there are other options of treatment besides de-bulking surgery, it remains the primary method.