Adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapy for esophageal cancer: a critical reappraisal

Despite important refinements of surgical technique and significant progress in perioperative care, esophageal cancer remains highly lethal. Therefore, hope for improvement in the prognosis of esophageal cancer lies largely in the use of additional therapy. Promising data from numerous Phase II trials and a single Phase III trial led to the widespread adoption of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. However, subsequent randomized trials did not conclusively demonstrate a survival benefit with any of the current neoadjuvant protocols for patients with resectable esophageal cancer. Benefit, if any, exists only for complete pathologic responders. Neoadjuvant chemoradiation should not be used in patients with resectable esophageal cancer outside of the clinical trials. Future investigation must focus on the development of new biologic or chemotherapeutic agents, and the identification of biologic markers that might predict response to chemoradiation.