Good job on this, stating “The cost of the surgery and Hipec, including hospitalization, ranges from $20,000 to more than $100,000, doctors said. While Medicare and insurers generally pay for the operation, the heated treatment may not be covered. But doctors added it may be if it is described merely as chemotherapy.” The story explained: “One randomized trial done more than a decade ago involving 105 patients in the Netherlands did show a striking benefit. The median survival of those getting surgery and Hipec, plus intravenous chemotherapy, was 22.3 months, almost double the 12.6 months for those getting only the intravenous chemotherapy” That being said, the story also included the proviso that newer drugs are now available that have been shown to increase survival. The story explains that one study showed that “8 percent who got the surgery and Hipec died from the treatment itself.”  And it stated: Includes one expert statement:  ““We’re practicing this technique that has almost no basis in science.” No disease mongering. Many different voices with different perspectives were heard in the story. Various comparisons were made – on both sides of the debate. A proponent of the new method said:  ““there are no long-term survivors with systemic chemotherapy — zero.” But the story also said: “critics say that …new drugs have come to market that allow patients with metastatic colorectal cancer to live two years with intravenous chemotherapy alone” The story states that “an increasing number of the nation’s leading medical centers has been offering the costly — and controversial — therapy to patients with the more common colorectal or ovarian cancers” and names some of them. The growing use of the approach was clear in the story. And the fact that one randomized trial was done fully a decade ago. The story benefited from independent reporting.
Hot Chemotherapy Bath: Patients See Hope, Critics Hold Doubts