[Multidisciplinary therapy for esophageal carcinoma. Cooperative Study Group for Esophageal Carcinoma]

A cooperative study was performed to evaluate the effects of bleomycin (BLM) and tegafur (FT) combined with preoperative radiotherapy for esophageal carcinoma. The drug choice was made randomly. A solid form of BLM was administered intraoperatively to two patient groups; there were 18 operative deaths. Death due to pneumonia was significantly high in the BLM group. Cases excluding operative deaths were used to calculate the cumulative survival rate. There was no significant difference in fluoroscopic findings, the age distribution and the extent of the disease. Concerning the radiation effect, histologic study of the resected specimen, showed that more patients in the tegafur group showed a marked effect. This group had a better postoperative survival rate, however, the difference was not significant.