Radiotherapy in the multimodality management of esophageal cancer

Squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the esophagus represent more than 90% of all cases of esophageal carcinoma. Although the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma has decreased, a continues increase in the incidence of adenocarcinoma has been observed, due to the increasing rate of obesity and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Treatment of carcinoma of the esophagus is complex and include surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The authors investigate the role of radiotherapy in the modern multimodality treatment of esophageal carcinomain order to derive recommendations for its implementation. The results of clinical trials and meta-analysis dealing with the radiotherapy application alone or as chemoradiation in preoperative, postoperative or definitive settings are summarized. When summarizing the data from the clinical trials and the meta-analyzes in esophageal carcinoma radiotherapy recommendations are drawn up. As a single modality radiotherapy is recommended only in palliative setting. Current data indicates that the neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by the surgery is accepted as a standard treatment achieving 3-year overall survival rateraging between 30% and 60%. No improvement in local control or survival is observed when total irradiation dose is increased over 50.4Gy. Neoadjuvant or definitive chemoradiation became a standard treatmentin locally advanced tumors of the esophagus. Preoperative chemoradiation has proven contribution to improving treatment results when compared to surgery alone in both squamous cell and adenocarcinoma of esophagus. There is also a trend towards improved survival when neoadjuvant chemoradiation is applied compared to neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone. Data in favor of definitive radiotherapy as radical treatment are limited and its use is recommended only in case of palliation.