[Neoadjuvant therapy in oesophageal cancer surgery]

Neoadjuvant therapy has been implemented to improve the prognosis of patients with oesophageal cancer. Operative therapy remains the therapy of choice for nonmetastatic disease in patients who can tolerate resection. Adjuvant therapy following resection is usually not indicated. For neoadjuvant therapy it seems to be confirmed that preoperative radiotherapy has only very little benefit and therefore, should not be recommended. Data for preoperative chemotherapy are conflicting. Following preoperative combined radio-chemotherapy a complete response of tumour can be expected in 20-25 % of treated patients with a marked advantage for these patients. However, there are still no markers available indicating tumour response before the start of perioperative radio-chemotherapy. Recently published meta-analyses confirm a small overall benefit for perioperative radio-chemotherapy. However, these data so far have not led to a broad agreement on the indication of neoadjuvant therapy in oesophageal cancer.