[Evaluation of radiotherapy combined with surgery for esophageal carcinoma]

The role of adjuvant radiotherapy combined with surgery for esophageal carcinoma was discussed. To improve the surgical results, pre- and/or postoperative irradiation (total doses was 5000 rads) were performed. The patients with esophageal carcinoma were divided into two groups by random selection. Eight patients of group A underwent pre- and postoperative radiotherapy and 11 patients of group B underwent postoperative radiotherapy alone. Dose of preoperative irradiation was 3000 rads in each patients of group A. Adjuvant chemotherapy of FT-207 (600mg/day) was also administered in all of these patients for long postoperative duration over 3 months. The incidence rate of the most neighbouring regional lymph nodes metastasis in group A showed high values as compared to that in group B. But the metastatic rate of other regional lymph nodes showed no significant difference between group A and group B. In comparison of prognosis between group A and group B, the patients of group A were survived well compared with the patients of group B, and postoperative distant metastasis was recognized frequently in the patients of group B. From these results, the treatment results were better in the group of pre- and postoperative irradiation than in the group of postoperative irradiation.