Safety, effectiveness and economic evaluation of intra-operative radiation therapy: a systematic review.

Background: Intra-operative radiation therapy (IORT) is the transfer of a single large radiation dose to the tumor bed during surgery with the final goal of improving regional tumor control. This study aimed to investigate the safety, effectiveness and economic evaluation of intra-operative radiation therapy.

Methods: The scientific literature was searched in the main biomedical databases (Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, Cochrane Library and PubMed) up to March 2014.