title: Intraoperative radiotherapy: current thinking.
abstract: Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) refers to the delivery of irradiation at surgery. A large single dose of irradiation is delivered to a surgically defined area, while uninvolved and dose-limiting tissues are displaced, the final goal of IORT being enhanced locoregional tumour control. IORT is used in most modern protocol studies as a boost radiation component of multidisciplinary treatment approaches. More recently, high activity radiation sources or mobile operating room treatment machines are used to facilitate the IORT procedure. Clinical experiences have shown that IORT may improve local control and disease-free survival, especially when used in adjuvant setting, combined with external beam irradiation in some neoplasms such as cancer of the stomach, pancreas, colorectum, and soft tissue sarcoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy, Institute of Radiology, Rome, Italy. vvalentini@rm.unicatt.it
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Valentini
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Balducci
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tortoreto
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Morganti
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: De Giorgi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fiorentini
mesh_terms: D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007430:Intraoperative Care / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome