[Intraoperative radiation therapy: its technological support, potentials and prospects]

Abstract

The authors' experience with intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) in 129 patients with a tumorous process at various sites has demonstrated that in most clinical events, single radiation doses of 10-20 Gy is insufficient to have a persistent local effect and requires additional pre- or postoperative remote irradiation. The use of IORT as a single component of radiation exposure does not lead to significant radiation damages to normal tissues. When IORT is combined with remote irradiation (the latter using doses of 30-60 Gy), 30% of patients develop radiation-induced normal tissue lesions. In the context of enhancing the local effect and, if possible, decreasing the dose of remote irradiation, it is expedient to increase IORT doses, which is in turn fraught with higher incidence and severity of radiation lesions. In this connection, it seems urgent to have a look for the potentialities to expand the radiotherapeutical range. This follows several directions.