Intraoperative radiotherapy in carcinoma of the stomach and pancreas

Abstract

Abstract Clinical results of intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) in carcinoma of the stomach and the pancreas are reported. In carcinoma of the stomach, 101 patients were treated by IORT and 110 patients were treated by operation alone. The 5‐year survival rates of patients treated by IORT were 87.2% for Stage I, 83.5% for Stage II, 62.3% for Stage III, and 14.7% for Stage IV. On the other hand, the 5‐year survival rates of patients treated by operation alone were 93.0% for Stage I, 61.8% for Stage II, 36.8% for Stage III, and 0% for Stage IV. It has been demonstrated that IORT has definite effects on locally advanced gastric cancer . In carcinoma of the pancreas, a total of 110 patients with locally advanced disease were entered into the pilot study. Forty‐nine patients were treated by IORT (group 1), 20 patients were treated by IORT followed by external beam radiotherapy (group 2), and 41 patients were treated by operation alone (group 3). The median survivals were 5.5 months for group 1, 12.0 months for group 2, and 5.5 months for group 3. The pilot study suggests that a combined IORT and external beam treatment may provide better survival time than can be achieved by IORT without external beam radiotherapy or by operation alone for locally advanced pancreatic cancer .