The CancerWeb Report, What's New In Cancer: August, 1996
Esophageal Cancer

• Multimodal treatment with chemotherapy and radiation prior to surgery best for cancer of the esophagus. - Results of a study by a group in Dublin, Ireland, published in the August 15, 1996 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that a combination of chemotherapy with cisplatin and radiation prior to surgery was superior to surgery alone for cancer of the esophagus. Mean survival was 16 months versus 11 months for surgery alone, and by 3 years the combined treatment was clearly superior, leading to 32% survival for the combination versus 6% for surgery alone. (Walsh, NEJ Med 335:462, 1996)

  Editor's Comment: - Cancer of the esophagus is a difficult cancer to treat, and unfortunately, its incidence is increasing. Chemotherapy and radiation have little or no effect when used alone, and surgical treatment by itself gives relatively poor results. The results of this relatively small (58 for multimodal treatment and 55 for surgery alone) study are promising. Presumably, the intensive combination treatment kills small metastases and/or shrinks the main tumor so that surgery becomes more effective.