[Radiotherapy and chemotherapy for esophageal cancer]

The nonsurgical gold standard treatment for esophageal cancer is radiotherapy, but chemoradiation therapy using anticancer agents concurrently is becoming standard management. With chemoradiation adverse responses in the acute stage may be enhanced in comparison with conventional radiation therapy alone, but improved treatment outcomes are reported. A consensus has nearly been reached on the standard radiation technique and dose, and a guideline changes, but drug type, timing, and optimum dosage in chemoradiation are unclear. Further future study is thus necessary. In this report, recent trends in radiotherapy and chemoradiation are outlined and future problems described.