Preoperative therapy in patients with esophageal cancer shows survival benefit

Filed under: Chemotherapy, Prevention, Esophageal Cancer, Surgery

Researchers now report that surgery plus either preoperative chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and adenocarcinoma does show a survival benefit.

Preoperative chemoradiotherapy resulted in a 19% reduction in mortality risk, with a greater survival benefit in patients with adenocarcinoma rather than SCC. Preoperative chemotherapy resulted in a 10% reduction in mortality risk, with this benefit seen only in patients with adenocarcinoma. These results come from a large meta-analysis of randomized trials.

Previous studies had shown that preoperative chemotherapy or radiotherapy did not show a survival benefit. However, many of these studies were small. Most oncologists no longer treat esophageal cancer with only surgery, due to recent trials. This study strengthens that conclusion.

This study was published in Lancet Oncology in March 2007.

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[Source: The Cancer Blog]