TARGIT Collaborative Group Information

The TARGIT Collaborative Group (TCG) is a cooperative effort between radiation oncologists, cancer surgeons, physicists and other experts in intraoperative radiotherapy that share a common mission to improve cancer patient care through education, patient advocacy, mentorship, and collaborative research. New technologies and innovations are enabling physicians to provide safe, effective, and less harmful treatments to patients. A major initial focus of the organization will be on increasing physician and patient awareness and access to targeted intraoperative radiotherapy, an innovative cancer treatment that reduces the side effect and burden of cancer care. TARGit Intraoperative radioTherapy (TARGIT) is a type of accelerated radiation treatment that has been most commonly used in breast cancer to deliver a complete course of radiation to the cancer site during surgery, immediately following cancer removal. In most cases, this single treatment eliminates the need for the usual 4-6-week course of daily radiation after surgery. TARGIT also reduces the side effects of radiation by confining the radiation dose to the immediate area of the cancer, thereby reducing radiation side effects on nearby tissues. Though increasingly used to treat breast cancer, TARGIT has also been used to treat cancers of the spine, skin, abdomen, pelvis, head and neck and brain.