Intraoperative radiotherapy in the treatment of female genital malignancies

• Published in: Current Gynecologic Oncology Vol. 10; no. 3; p. 215
• Main Authors: Biedka, Marta, Śpiewankiewicz, Beata
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Polish
• Published: Warsaw Medical Communications Sp. z o.o 01.01.2012
• Subjects: Genital cancers; Radiation therapy
• ISSN: 2081-1632

Intraoperative radiotherapy is an innovative boosting technique enabling administration of single high dose of radiation, usually combined with external beam radiotherapy following surgery, used in the treatment of both primary and recurrent lesions. Such an approach offers several radiobiological, physical and clinical benefits. One of them is the option to irradiate selected anatomical areas identified during surgery as high-risk and/or residual tumor sites while protecting adjacent normal tissues, major nerve trunks and blood vessels, which may be displaced out of the irradiated field or covered with special shields. Key benefits of intraoperative radiotherapy include delivery of high total dose of radiation, superior local control and greater influence on overall survival. Available techniques of intraoperative radiotherapy include brachytherapy, generating high energy photon radiation using temporary or permanent applicators and mobile linear accelerators, which are the main source of electrons. Compared with conventional brachytherapy or teleradiotherapy, intraoperative radiotherapy offers several benefits including: ability to irradiate resection margins in order to reduce the risk of recurrence from tumor cells remaining the resection plane and reduction of risk of “geographical error”, enabling real-time inspection or palpation of surgical site. Furthermore, intraoperative radiotherapy makes possible reduction of radiation dose delivered to the skin, subcutaneous tissue and bones, while a large single dose provides an enhanced biological effect as compared with conventional radiotherapy. The aim of this paper was to point out types of female genital tumors which may be treated using intraoperative radiotherapy.