[Analysis of cases of complete response (CR) in esophageal and gastric cancer]

We investigated 117 patients with advanced esophageal cancer who had undergone radio-chemotherapy from 1990 to 2000 in our department. Concurrent radiotherapy with chemotherapy improved the response rate, and adjuvant surgery improved the prognosis. Future problems are the establishment of a method to estimate the sensitivity of tumors to chemotherapy or radiotherapy, the improvement of diagnostic methods for evaluation of the effect and the development of new therapies and regimens for non-responders in the present radio-chemotherapy group. The CR cases of inoperable, noncurative and recurrent patients with gastric cancer in the past decade were examined. A CR of the lymph nodes was obtained in 5 cases, and that of the hepatic metastasis and peritoneal recurrence was observed in one case each. However, a CR of the primary lesion has not been attained. Though re-swelling of the lymph nodes was not observed in 4 out of 5 CR cases, a maintenance treatment after CR should be established. Topical treatment is promising for the hepatic metastasis and peritoneal seeding. Since it is difficult to attain a CR of the primary lesion, surgical resection is required to prolong the survival time.