Medical Oncologist
CION Cancer Clinics
Choosing a centre for HIPEC surgery | CION Cancer Clinics
Choose the team, not the building. What matters is how often the surgeons do this exact operation, whether the ICU, anaesthetists and nutrition team are used to caring for people after it, and whether the centre will tell you honestly when it is not the right operation for you. This page gives you the questions to ask, what to look for behind the surgeon, and how families from the districts can plan the weeks around it. CION Cancer Clinics’ surgical oncologists in Hyderabad can talk this through with you.
MI
Medically reviewed by Dr. Mohammed ImaduddinConsultant Surgical Oncologist · MBBS, MS (General Surgery), MCh (Surgical Oncology) · last reviewed September 2026, next review due September 2027
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On this page
- How do you choose a centre for HIPEC?
- What should you ask any centre before agreeing?
- What does a centre need to have in place?
- Signs of a careful centre, and signs to pause on
- How do you actually make the choice?
- Four things families say when choosing, and what is actually true
- What this page cannot tell you
- Common questions about choosing a HIPEC centre
The short answer
How do you choose a centre for HIPEC?
Choose the team, not the building. What matters is how often the surgeons do this exact operation, whether the intensive care unit, the anaesthetists and the nutrition team are used to caring for people after it, and whether the centre will tell you honestly when it is not the right operation for you.
Why this operation is different from most surgery
Cytoreductive surgery with HIPEC can take most of a day. Several organs may be handled or removed, and the heated chemotherapy adds a stage most theatres never see. Recovery depends on a whole team knowing what normal looks like on day three and day ten, and what is not normal. A hospital that does the operation now and then cannot build that familiarity, however good its other departments are.
Where to start in Telangana
Start with your treating oncologist. Ask them who they would refer a family member to, and why. Then take your reports to that surgeon and ask the questions on this page. Most families in the districts will travel to Hyderabad for this operation. Plan for the family to stay near the hospital for some weeks, because recovery is slow and readmission is possible.
This page does not recommend a hospital, and it does not say whether you should have the operation. It gives you the questions that separate a well-prepared centre from a hopeful one.Ask these
What should you ask any centre before agreeing?
- How many cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC operations does this team do in a year?
- Which surgeon will actually operate, and how many of these have they done?
- Is my case discussed at a tumour board before the plan is confirmed?
- What is my PCI score, and is complete removal realistic?
- What will you do on the day if you find more disease than the scans show?
- Who looks after me in ICU, and is there a dietitian and a stoma nurse?
- What are your own complication figures for this operation?
- What would you recommend if the answer to HIPEC were no?
Not sure whether this applies to you?
Ask an oncologistBehind the surgeon
What does a centre need to have in place?
A surgical team with volume
Not one surgeon but a team that operates together regularly, because the operation is long and the second half is as demanding as the first. Ask who assists, and whether the same team does every case.
Anaesthesia and intensive care
The anaesthetist manages hours of blood loss, fluid shifts and the body's response to heat. The ICU then watches the kidneys, the lungs and the bowel joins for days.
Ask whether the ICU has
- Experience with this operation specifically
- Kidney support available on site
A tumour board and a pathologist
Medical, surgical and radiation oncologists should look at your scans together before the decision. The pathologist who reads the tissue afterwards shapes what treatment follows.
After-care that does not stop at discharge
A dietitian for the weeks when eating is hard, a stoma nurse if a bag is needed, physiotherapy, and a number to call at night. Ask who answers that number.
Ask your own centre which of these it has. Do not assume from the size of the building.Side by side
Signs of a careful centre, and signs to pause on
A careful centre
A reason to pause
Explains which cancer you have and what the evidence shows for it
Offers the operation before the biopsy result is back
Quotes its own numbers for how often it does the operation
Answers with the hospital's reputation instead of a number
Says plainly when it would not recommend HIPEC for you
Presents it as the only option, with urgency to book
Gives a written estimate line by line, and checks your scheme
Gives one total, and raises the scheme question after admission
Leave a number, we will call you
One field. No form to fill in, and no charge for the call.
A way to go about it
How do you actually make the choice?
Gather everything first
Biopsy report, every scan with its disc, chemotherapy summaries and the discharge notes from any earlier surgery. A centre can only judge what it can see.
Get one opinion from a team that does this
Ask your oncologist for a referral to a surgical oncologist who does peritoneal surgery regularly. Take the family member who will be caring for the patient.
Ask the questions, and write down the answers
Use the list above. A second opinion is reasonable for an operation of this size, and a confident centre will not mind you seeking one.
Decide with the whole picture
Weigh the answers, the scheme approval, the travel and the weeks of recovery together. A slightly nearer hospital is not a reason on its own; a team you trust to say no is.
Commonly believed
Four things families say when choosing, and what is actually true
"The biggest hospital must be the safest for this."
Size says nothing about how often a particular team does this particular operation. A large hospital with a small peritoneal programme is a small programme. Ask for the team's own numbers, not the hospital's bed count.
"We should go abroad or to Mumbai for it to be done properly."
Experienced peritoneal surgery teams exist in several Indian cities, including Hyderabad. Distance matters after this operation, because readmission and follow-up are common. Choose on the team's answers, and count travel as a real cost to recovery.
"If they have the HIPEC machine, they can do the operation."
The machine is the easy part. The surgery before it and the intensive care after it are what decide how the patient does. Ask about the surgeon, the ICU and the after-care before you ask about equipment.
"Asking for a second opinion will offend the surgeon."
For an operation of this size, a second opinion is normal and expected. A surgeon who is offended by it is telling you something useful. Take the same reports to both, and ask both the same questions.
Being straight with you
What this page cannot tell you
It cannot tell you which hospital to choose, and it does not compare one against another. It cannot tell you whether your cancer is suitable for the operation at all. Both answers come from a surgical oncologist with your reports in hand, and the second one comes first.
Ask your own centre what it offers
Do not assume from a website, including this one, that a centre does this operation, or does it often. Ask directly. Ask which surgeon, how many a year, and where the ICU care happens. A straight answer to those three is worth more than any brochure.
Plan the weeks around the operation
Families from the districts should plan for a stay in Hyderabad covering admission, the ICU days, the ward stay and the first follow-up visits. Ask the centre about accommodation nearby, and about how a problem at night will be handled once you are back in the village. The centre's answer to that last question tells you a great deal.
If you are not sure where to begin, call the helpline. Someone will look at what has been found so far and help you reach a surgical oncologist for an opinion.Questions we are asked
Common questions about choosing a HIPEC centre
How many operations a year makes a centre experienced?
There is no single agreed number, and this page will not invent one. What you are listening for is a team that answers with a figure at all, does the operation regularly rather than occasionally, and can describe its own complication pattern. A team that has to think about when it last did one is telling you the answer.
Is HIPEC available in Hyderabad?
Peritoneal surgery teams exist in Hyderabad and in several other Indian cities. Rather than relying on a list, ask any centre you are considering whether it does cytoreductive surgery with HIPEC, which surgeon leads it and how often. The helpline can help you reach a surgical oncologist for an opinion.
Should I choose the surgeon or the hospital?
The surgeon and the team around them. Ask who will actually operate, who assists, which anaesthetist and which ICU. A well-known name who visits occasionally is not the same as a team that works together every week. The hospital's other departments matter less than that.
Does my Aarogyasri card limit which centre I can use?
Aarogyasri pays only at network hospitals, and CGHS, ECHS and EHS at empanelled ones, so yes, the scheme narrows the list. Ask the scheme desk at each centre you are considering whether both the surgery and the heated chemotherapy can be submitted under your card before you decide.
What if two centres give different advice?
Ask each to explain what they saw on the scans and which evidence they are relying on. For some cancers experienced surgeons genuinely disagree. Choose the team whose reasoning you can follow and who was honest about uncertainty, rather than the one who sounded most certain.
How far in advance do we need to arrange things?
Start the scheme paperwork, the fitness tests and the accommodation search at the same time, not one after another. Each takes time and none depends on the other. Ask the centre for a list of what it needs on the first visit so that nothing is done twice.
Can the follow-up be done nearer home?
Often some of it can, with blood tests and scans done locally and reviewed by the operating team. Ask the centre how it handles follow-up for patients from the districts, and whether it can share a plan with a local doctor. A centre that has thought about this is one that has cared for people like you before.
Is it wrong to ask about complication figures?
No. It is the most reasonable question you can ask about a major operation. A careful centre will describe the problems it sees most often and how it deals with them. Be wary of an answer that says complications are rare and leaves it there.
Meet the Specialists
17+ senior cancer specialists. One panel for your case.
Trained at AIIMS, Tata Memorial, and leading international centres. Combined 150+ years of experience. Every complex case is reviewed by 3+ of them — together.
Medical Oncologist
Dr. C. Raghavendra Reddy
MBBS(Gold Medal), DNB(General Medicine), DM(Medical Oncology)(Gold Medal)
Medical Oncologist
Dr. Bharati Devi Gorantla
MBBS, MD(General Medicine), DM(Medical Oncology)(Adyar,Chennai), ECMO, MRCP SCE(UK)
Medical Oncologist
Dr. Owais Mohammed
MBBS, MD (General Medicine), DrNB (Medical Oncology), ECMO, MRCP SCE (Medical Oncology) (UK)
Medical Oncologist
Medical Oncologist
Surgical Oncologist
Dr. Muralidhar Muddusetty
MBBS (AIIMS), MS (Surgery) (AIIMS), DNB (Surgical Oncology), MRCS (Edinburgh)
Surgical Oncologist
Surgical Oncologist
Surgical Oncologist
Dr. Vinay Mamidala
MBBS, MS(General Surgery), M.Ch(Surgical Oncology), FMAS, FARIS(Ongoing)
Surgical Oncologist
Radiation Oncologist
Radiation Oncologist
Radiation Oncologist
Hematologist
Surgical Oncologist
Dr. Vajja Sandeep Kumar
MBBS, MS (General Surgery), DrNB (Surgical Oncology), FALS Oncology
Surgical Oncologist
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Accreditation and empanelment
- NABH
- NABL
- ISO 9001:2015
- ArogyaSri empanelled
- CGHS accepted
- ECHS accepted
- EHS accepted
- Major cashless insurers
Paying for it
Insurance, schemes and payment
What you actually pay usually differs a great deal from the sticker figure.
AarogyasriEmpanelled. Bring the card and a referral where you have one.
CGHS / ECHS / EHSAccepted at CION centres for eligible treatment.
Cashless insuranceMost major insurers are empanelled. Pre-authorisation is handled by our desk.
Self-payItemised estimate given before treatment starts. No EMI scheme exists.
Where to find us
Our centres in and around Hyderabad
Addressed by landmark, because that is how this city navigates. A surgical consultation can be booked at any of these centres through one helpline, and your team will tell you where the operation itself takes place.
Warangal
Vizag
Sources
- NICE — Cytoreduction surgery with hyperthermic intraoperative peritoneal chemotherapy for peritoneal carcinomatosis (IPG688)
- National Cancer Institute — Surgery to treat cancer
- Cancer Research UK — Pseudomyxoma peritonei
- Macmillan Cancer Support — Treatments and drugs
- Tata Memorial Centre — Tata Memorial Centre
This page is general information, not a prescription. Do not change or stop any treatment based on what you read here. If anything is worrying you, contact your own treating team — or call our helpline and we will help you reach the right specialist.
Keep reading
Related pages
Choosing a Surgeon and a CentreThe general questions for any cancer operationWho Is Eligible for HIPEC?Suitability comes before the choice of centreComplication Rates After HIPEC: The Honest PictureWhat a careful centre should be willing to discussIs HIPEC Covered by Insurance or Aarogyasri?How the scheme narrows the list of centresCaretaker and Family Guide to SurgeryPlanning the weeks in Hyderabad around the operation
Talk to us
Not sure where to start?
Tell us what has been found so far and where you are. We will help you reach a surgical oncologist for an opinion on whether this operation is right for you. One helpline serves every CION centre.