To clarify the role of radiation therapy in the treatment of carcinoma of the pancreas studies with radiotherapy alone, combined interventional or concurrent radio-chemotherapy are reviewed. It is shown that in the case of inoperable tumour radiotherapy alone is inadequate, but by the means of a combination of chemotherapy, external beam or interventional (intra-operative, interstitial) irradiation, improvements in local control rates and median survival can be achieved. Following so-called curative resection, a number of studies have shown that adjuvant radio-chemotherapy or interventional treatments possibly prolong survival.