Find a Specialist

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Managing rare and advanced abdominal cancers requires special skill and experience, so it is important to find a specialist who knows how to treat your diagnosis.

Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) combined with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is a highly specialized and advanced procedure used to treat cancers that have spread to the lining of the abdominal cavity (peritoneum). It involves surgically removing all visible tumors, followed by the circulation of heated chemotherapy directly in the abdomen to kill remaining microscopic cancer cells.

Disclaimer: This procedure should only be performed by a highly experienced surgical oncologist who specializes in CRS/HIPEC. If you are considering this treatment, it is essential to:

Ask how many CRS/HIPEC procedures the doctor has performed.
Request to meet one or more of their past patients, if possible, to understand their experience and outcomes.
Ask if the surgeon or center has published results on their outcomes and request copies of those publications.

Sometimes the best provider for you and your treatment may not be local. Please consider getting consultations with doctors in other metropolitan areas or even nearby states.

In some cases, a specialist may indicate that a patient is not a candidate due to "too much cancer" (often measured by a Peritoneal Cancer Index or PCI score). In that case, it is crucial to seek a second or even a third opinion. Some doctors may deny surgery for PCI scores over 20, but in many cases, if all visible disease can be removed, CRS/HIPEC may still be the best option for more prolonged survival - or even cure.

Find a Specialist

Use the dropdown list or the interactive map below to select a state and find a specialist.

*Some States are greyed out and not clickable or available in the dropdown because we were unable to find specialists in these states

We strongly encourage patients and caregivers to:

Choose the physician that is the best fit for the patient.
Use our Questions for Specialists guide when interviewing physicians.
Solicit Multiple Physician Opinions if possible.

Please note: Surgery for peritoneal surface malignancy (PSM) is a rapidly evolving field. It is neither possible nor advisable to offer a one-size-fits-all recommendation for every patient. Different PSM centers have varying levels of experience, technical expertise, and institutional philosophies, which influence their patient selection criteria. For example, some centers may have stricter thresholds - such as rejecting patients based on a high PCI score or disease involvement in specific areas - while others may take a more liberal approach. This variation does not imply that one approach is right and the other wrong. Instead, it reflects the reality that many reasonable, evidence-informed decisions are possible across institutions. This diversity of practice is one of the main reasons patients are encouraged to seek multiple expert opinions before making a treatment decision.

The majority of the physicians included on this list are surgical oncologists. This is because surgery (CRS/HIPEC) currently remains a primary treatment for abdominal cancers. However, some patients may require other treatments, such as chemotherapy before, after, or instead of surgery. Those patients are treated with other treatments, like chemotherapy or other modalities are treated by a medical oncologist, which are not included on this list.

This resource is provided for informational purposes only. The inclusion of a physician does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the Abdominal Cancers Alliance or by Partners for Cancer Care and Prevention.