Comparison Between Concurrent Chemoradiation Followed by Surgery vs. Surgery for Locally Advanced Cancer of Esophagus

Surgery is an accepted standard in the treatment of localized stage cancer of esophagus. But the ideal approach for locally advanced lesions still remains unknown. Patients with locally advanced lesions (cT3-4N1M0) on the basis of CT chest were subjected either to primary surgery or to preoperative chemoradiation followed by surgery. Major postoperative complications (mortality, anastomotic leak and recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy) did not differ in either arm (P = not significant). Complete pathological response was achieved in 31.2% cases in multimodality arm. Four year overall survival was 10% for whole group. Median survival was 14 months and 20 months in surgery and multimodality arm, respectively (p = .288). In multimodal arm, there was significant survival difference between complete responders and nonresponders (p = .02). For locally advanced lesions, surgery alone gives poor outcome and preoperative chemoradiation followed by surgery should be considered for complete responders.