Palliative treatment of carcinoma of the esophagus

In a ten-year period 139 patients with epidermoid carcinoma of the esophagus were treated by palliative feeding procedures, palliative radiation therapy, radiation therapy for cure, or resection. Analysis of the results of these modes of therapy indicates that long-term palliation is best achieved when resection is the primary method of therapy. Radiation therapy improved survival in the first 12 months of disease; however, no patients treated with radiation therapy alone were cured. In five cases resection resulted in apparent cure. For this reason we suggest that resection for palliation is indicated, and in an occasional patient it will result in a cure.