[Palliative treatment of esophageal carcinoma]

The choice of the most beneficial method of the treatment of patients with esophageal cancer still remains a matter of debate. According majority of epidemiological reports only 10% of esophageal cancer patients has a chance for 5-year survival. Unfortunately, the curative surgical treatment is possible in relatively small number of patients, nevertheless esophagectomy is regarded as a principle method of treatment. Usually it referrers to the group of 50% of patients with locally advanced cancer. Thus, the management of the majority of esophageal cancer patients is palliative. Its main objective is to improve esophageal passage compromised by tumor narrowing esophageal lumen. Maintenance of esophageal passage facilitates food intake and usually postpones the stage of terminal cachexia and thus results in quality of life improvement. As it has been evident from up-to-date research currently used methods of palliative treatment do not significantly improve survival. In this paper we demonstrate a review of currently available methods of palliative treatment of patients with esophageal cancer and brief discussion on our own experience from last four years.