[Clinico-pathological studies on the effects of preoperative hyperthermo-chemoradiotherapy of advanced esophageal...

We report clinico-pathological studies on the effect of preoperative hyperthermia and chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy (HCR) for progress of the local curability of advanced esophageal carcinoma. The subjects of these studies were 17 patients who underwent subtotal esophagectomy after preoperative irradiation 40 Gy from 1980 to 1989, of which 8 patients had HCR, 6 patients irradiation only (R), 3 patients both irradiation and chemotherapy (CR). The clinical response rate of the patients with R or CR was 33% (PR 3, MR 3, NC 3), and the histological effective (Ef3 or Ef2) rate was 56% (Ef3 1, Ef2 4, Ef1 4). The clinical response rate of the patients with HCR was 88% (PR 7, MR 1), and the histological effective rate was 100% (Ef3 1 Ef2 7). HCR was more effective than R or CR for the local lesion of esophageal carcinoma histopathologically (p less than 0.05). However, the survival rate of patients with HCR was similar to R and CR, respectively. These results suggest that further improvement of the heating methods and the methods of combining hyperthermia with irradiation and chemotherapy is needed.