Although the intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) has a history about a century, its practise has been increased in recent years. It is feasible in cases where operation and external beam radiation therapy can not achieve local control. There are several studies reporting increased survival in IORT employment especially in tumors totally resected but have high risk of recurrence in surgical bed or unresectable tumors due to their location. Since IORT is applied in a single dose, late toxicity is an important issue should be considered. Also it is not a modality that can be used in every case. Particularly a lot of studies were published in gastointestinal tumors (pancreas, colorectal, stomach), cervical cancer, breast cancer and retroperitoneal sarcomas. In this article, we discuss description of IORT, its usage, machines and their specifications, inclusion criteria of patients, toxicities and results of therapy in some tumor sites.
Keywords: intraoperative radiotherapy, electron beam, X ray, late toxicity, normal tissue tolerance