[Squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus]

The prognosis of locally advanced squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) of the esophagus after surgery only is poor. Therefore a definitive chemoradiotherapy (RCTx) was also discussed as the therapy of choice. Besides tumor biology, patient-related factors, such as alcohol and nicotine abuse increase the perioperative mortality and morbidity. Multimodal treatment can improve the outcome in comparison to surgery alone. A recently published meta-analysis confirmed that preoperative RCTx followed by surgery improves the prognosis compared to surgery alone in SCC of the esophagus. After chemotherapy this effect is less pronounced. Patients with a complete histopathological response (pCR) after preoperative RCTx have a 5-year survival rate of more than 55% and a low probability of local recurrence. However, a pCR cannot be predicted neither by negative biopsy nor by negative FDG-PET uptake after RCTx. Up to now FDG-PET has shown a low impact for response prediction or therapy modification in SCC of the esophagus in clinical studies. Responding patients should be transferred to surgery after preoperative treatment, because of a reduced perioperative morbidity and mortality and improved prognosis.