Palliative radiotherapy to maintain outpatient status in elderly patients with esophageal carcinoma

Radiation monotherapy effectively relieves symptoms of esophageal cancer. Many studies have reported relief from dysphagia with this treatment; however, the degree of the dysphagia is subjective. On the other hand, the length of outpatient management is objective. In this study, we investigated how radiation monotherapy can contribute to helping elderly patients with esophageal cancer remain as outpatients.

Between January 2010 and December 2017, we followed 42 patients aged >75 years who underwent radiation monotherapy for esophageal carcinoma. Of these patients, 36 were included in the study. We retrospectively collected data on the patients' characteristics, tumor extension around the circumference of the esophagus, medical procedures, prognosis, cause of death, and outpatient management period. We also analyzed the relationships between the outpatient management period, the clinical stage, and the circumferential extension of the tumor.

Of the 36 patients (26 males, 10 females), 27 were treated using doses of 60 or 66 Gy, and 9 received 40 or 50 Gy. The median survival period of the patients who died during the study was 14 months, and their median period of outpatient management was 9 months. Eight of the 12 patients with tumors extending across four-fifths or the entire circumference of the esophagus required medical intervention to administer nutrition. There were no significant differences in the period of outpatient management among the patients who died during the study in terms of clinical stage and horizontal location.

Radiation monotherapy may facilitate outpatient management; however, patients with tumors extending all or most of the circumference of the esophagus required an additional medical procedure.