[Radiation therapy with or without cisplatin in esophageal carcinoma]

Of 74 patients with an esophageal carcinoma, 26 were treated with a combined modality of radiotherapy and cisplatin (CDDP group), and 48 were treated with radiotherapy alone (RT group). Sixteen patients were salvaged by surgery after radiotherapy. Fifty-two patients were found to have a loco-regional disease (RT group: 34 patients; CDDP group: 18 patients) and 22 patients had a distant metastasis at the time of the initial treatment (RT group: 14 patients; CDDP group; 8 patients). For those with a loco-regional disease, the response rate was for those in the CDDP group and 34% for those in the RT group. For non-surgically salvaged cases, the median survival was 12 months and there was no statistically significant difference between the CDDP and the RT groups. For the surgically salvaged cases, 2 out of 7 patients in the RT group and 5 out of 9 patients an in the CDDP group are still alive. Additionally, four T3 cases were salvaged by surgery in the CDDP group.