Gastrointestinal Cancer: Pancreas

Radiotherapy plays a significant role in the management of pancreatic cancer. In combination with surgical resection and chemotherapy, radiation provides local control and is utilized to reduce morbidity and mortality from local disease progression. Radiation can be utilized definitively in unresectable disease, but also in the neoadjuvant and adjuvant setting in conjunction with surgery and chemotherapy. While radiotherapy in pancreatic cancer has traditionally been administered using conventional dose regimens, hypofractionated radiation is an emerging treatment option. In this chapter we review the role of radiotherapy in the current management of pancreatic cancer, as well as the data and practical aspects of stereotactic body radiotherapy.