Results of surgery in multimodality therapy of esophageal cancer

Results of surgical treatment for squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus are not satisfactory. The relatively low resectability rate, extensive surgery associated with a relatively high morbidity and mortality as well as the high risk for local recurrence and distant metastases influence the unfavorable prognosis. The improvement of these risk factors has been attempted through multimodality therapy such as preoperative radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. Even with the advantages of such a treatment plan which was documented in different phase II studies, it has not been possible to prove in randomized studies its advantage in comparison to immediate surgery. But there is some evidence that multimodality therapy may benefit some patient groups. The definition of these groups has to be the task of future studies. Important selection criteria may be tumor size, tumor localization and response to preoperative chemo- and/or radiotherapy. Before these questions are answered in further studies, the best treatment for non metastatic localized, esophageal carcinoma is still radical surgical resection.