IORT perioperative nursing challenges. One hospital's experience.

1. Intra-operative radiation therapy (IORT) is a treatment option for patients with cancer who may not respond to standard treatment modalities. The concept of IORT is to remove or debulk the tumor and then directly irradiate the site with electron-beam radiation to kill any residual cancerous cells. 2. Perioperative nurses identified three patients care goals: prevention of wound contamination; safe transportation of the patient; and availability of the necessary equipment in the linear-accelerator suite. 3. Because there is no risk to the attending nurses of exposure to radiation--as might be the case with radioactive seed implementation--no special precautions are necessary. The patient is then followed on a regular basis to check tumor response to the treatment.