Histopathological effects of intraoperative radiotherapy on pancreas and adjacent tissues: a postmortem analysis.

Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) has been utilized in the treatment of resectable and unresectable pancreatic carcinoma at the National Cancer Institute. Detailed autopsy analyses of the radiation effects on the pancreas and adjacent tissues were performed on 13 patients dying at various times following therapy. IORT can induce a progressive retroperitoneal fibrosis and fibrosis of the porta hepatis in patients with resectable pancreatic carcinoma. In unresectable pancreatic carcinoma, the major expression of intraoperative irradiation with external beam irradiation is a progressive fibrosis of the pancreas with vascular sclerosis, nerve degeneration, atrophy of acinar cells, and atypical changes in the ducts of the pancreas, as well as degenerative changes of the pancreatic tumor.