The progress in clinical research on intraoperative radiotherapy for unresectable pancreatic cancer

Based on the Global Cancer Statistics 2011, in developing country the incidence rate of pancreatic cancer was as high as the mortality rate, which was 2.7 per 100,000 and 2.5 per 100, 000 in males respectively while 2.1 and 2.0 in females respectively. Five-year over survival rate was about 5% for patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma historically. Unfortunately, only 20% of patients with tumors were resection after diagnosis, and with 20% of 5 year of survival rate and 50%~80% of local failure rates after resection. Most of patients with advanced diseases (nearly 40%) and metastatic disease (nearly 49%) were unresectable and had only 6 to 10 months to survive. However, the optimal management for the patients with pancreatic cancer patients still requires clarification. At present, all of the treatment is aming to bring more benefits in local control tumor and reduce normal tissue damage. Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) is an attractive strategy for administration of a single high dose of ionizing radiation during the surgical intervention targeted at the primary tumor and has the advantage to enabling healthy tissues to be displaced and shielded from the radiation beam. Therefore, IORT should become a significant new method in combined treatment pancreatic cancer. Key words: Pancreatic neoplasms; Therapy; Quality of life