Patients undergo surgical placement of an intraperitoneal (IP) catheter. Tumor biopsies are obtained during surgery for laboratory analysis of molecular determinants of apoptosis (including p53 status, p21 gene expression, bcl-2 gene expression, bcl-2/bax ratio) and molecular determinants of DNA damage and repair (including expression levels of ERCC1 and MDR1, and HER2/neu expression by immunohistochemistry). The extent of apoptosis is also assessed using the TdT assay.