Objective To study the safety and efficacy of prophylactic hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC).

Methods The data of 180 patients with CRC at Shanxi Provincial People's Hospital from February 2019 to February 2022 were retrospectively collected and assigned into HIPEC and control groups. Among these patients, 53 patients were in the HIPEC group and 127 patients were in the control group. Proensity score matching (PSM) using 1:1 ratio to balance the confounding factors between the two groups and successfully matched to 48 pairs of patients.

Results No significant difference was observed in the occurrence of postoperative complications between the HIPEC and control groups (P>0.05). After 2 years of follow-up, a significant decrease was noted in preoperative and postoperative carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels in both groups (P<0.05). The overall metastasis rate for early postoperative CRC was 17.65%, which differed significantly between the HIPEC and control groups (9.30% vs. 26.19%, P<0.05).

Conclusions HIPEC is safe and feasible for CRC surgery and does not increase the occurrence of postoperative complications. As a perfusion solution, lobaplatin exhibits minimal toxicity and no apparent side effects. Intraoperative HIPEC can effectively prevent early metastasis of CRC, which is conducive to improved patient prognosis.