Diagnostic laparoscopy shows strong accuracy for cancer treatment selection

A systematic review of 25 studies involving 3,820 patients found that diagnostic laparoscopy (DL) exhibits high diagnostic performance in selecting patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis for cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy. The pooled positive predictive value was 93.04%, with sensitivity at 98.26% and specificity at 83.67%. Further analysis identified high accuracy in ovarian cancer cases, despite false positives noted in specific anatomical areas. This underscores DL’s potential to improve patient outcomes and optimize healthcare resources.