Role of Radiation Treatment for Pancreas Cancer

Radiotherapy is most commonly used as a non-curative therapy for patients with cancer of the pancreas. For some patients, radiation therapy may be offered before or after a potentially curative operation but this in not common.

Indications

Non-curative therapy
Radiotherapy is a treatment option for patients who cannot undergo a potentially curative operation. Radiotherapy is also a treatment option for some patients who have evidence of residual cancer after an operation. Patients who are in good general health may also be eligible for chemotherapy before and during radiotherapy.

Curative therapy
Patients who are able to undergo a potentially curative opperation are not routinely offered radiation therapy before surgery. Radiation therapy may be offered to some patients if it is the opinion of the surgeon that shrinking the cancer before surgery will enable the surgeon to remove the pancreas cancer. Chemotherapy may be given during radiation therapy and before surgery. Radiation therapy may be offered to some patients after surgery in combination with chemotherapy if it is thought that there is a high risk of the cancer recurring locally.

Benefits

Non-curative therapy
Radiotherapy may be delivered in combination with chemotherapy as a treatment to delay the progression of pancreatic cancer. Radiotherapy alone or in combination with chemotherapy may alleviate some symptoms caused by pancreatic cancer.

Curative therapy
Radiation therapy may be delivered in combination with chemotherapy to try to shrink pancreas cancers so that patients can undergo a potentially curative operation. Patients who undergo radiation therapy before an operation may not be eligible for a potentially curative operation without preoperative treatment. These cases are carefully selected by a skilled multidisciplinary team of surgeons, radiation oncologists and medical oncologists. Radiation in combination with chemotherapy may reduce the risk of local reccurence after surgery in high risk patients.

How to Make a Referral

Patients with gastrointestinal cancer may be referred to one of the radiation oncologists in the Site Group either through the departmental referral process or by contacting one of the physicians directly.

This page was last updated September 1st, 2010 at 7:50am.