Abstract:The incidence and mortality of gastrointestinal cancers in China are increasing year by year, where rectal cancer accounts for an essential part and severely endangers the physical and mental health of patients. With the rapid development of economy and the gradual westernization of lifestyle, the proportion of patients with advanced rectal cancer is also on the rise. At present, the treatment of patients with advanced rectal cancer mainly includes surgery, postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy, neoadjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT). In recent years, there has been an upsurge of IORT, while evidence-based advantages and limitations of IORT have not been well documented. This article intends to review the development of IORT over the past years.