Radiation Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer

Chapter

Abstract

Radiation therapy is used in conjunction with surgery for patients with resectable or marginally resectable pancreas cancer. It also can be used as definitive therapy, usually in conjunction with chemotherapy, for patients with locally advanced unresectable disease or in patients who are unable or unwilling to undergo extirpative surgery. The efficacy of radiotherapy, in the setting of pancreatic malignancy, is limited by the fact that malignant tumors of the pancreas frequently abut highly radiosensitive normal tissues, such as the duodenum, small intestine, and stomach. Additionally, when X-rays are used to treat these tumors, the beams must often pass through critical radiosensitive structures such as the spinal cord, liver, and kidneys. Encouragingly, over the past decade, newer radiotherapy technologies like intensity-modulated radiation therapy and particle therapy (using protons and carbon ions) offer technological solutions that facilitate the delivery of effective radiotherapy doses to tumor targets while minimizing or eliminating the effective dose to critical normal structures.

Keywords

Pancreas cancer Radiation therapy Intensity-modulated radiotherapy Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy Intraoperative radiotherapy Proton therapy 
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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Radiation OncologyUniversity of Florida Proton Therapy InstituteJacksonvilleUSA

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