Intraoperative radiation therapy in pancreatic cancer

Background: Pancreatic cancer is the 10th leading cause of cancer death worldwide. For pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma the 5-year survival ranges between 3-16%. Surgical therapy offers the only cure for pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Local tumor progression even after R0-resection still causes significant morbidity and mortality with local recurrence being as high as 50-80%. This presented study hypothesizes that patients who receive IORT will have longer disease free survival and overall patient survival as well as lower recurrence rates with the same morbidity rates as compared to patients who did not receive IORT (primary hypothesis).