Efficacy and safety of intraoperative radiotherapy in colorectal cancer: A systematic review

Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) has been proposed as an encouraging treatment for colorectal cancer. The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of IORT for this cancer through a systematic review. Studies located in electronic databases were selected according to established criteria, read and analysed and the results extracted by two independent reviewers. Fifteen studies met the selection criteria. Five-to-six-year local control (LC) was over 80% and 5-year overall survival (OS) was close to 65%. For recurrences, the 5-year overall survival was 30%. The main acute complications were gastrointestinal. Adding IORT to conventional treatment reduces the incidence of local recurrences within the radiation area over 10%. IORT is a safe technique as it does not increase toxicity associated with conventional treatment.