[Histological effect and prognosis after preoperative chemotherapy in esophageal cancer]

Preoperative chemotherapy for esophageal cancer was performed and the toxic effects, post-operative complications, histological effects and survival time were evaluated. Toxic effects and post-operative complications were rare. The histological effect was evaluated according to the Guidelines for Clinical and pathologic studies on carcinoma of the esophagus by the Japanese Society for Esophageal Disease. A histological effect of more than Grade II was seen from 25 to 42.1%. A significant difference was seen in the Kaplan-Meier survival curves between the response group and the no response group (p < 0.05). If we perform preoperative chemotherapy for esophageal cancer only to responsive cases determined by chemosensitivity tests, the prognosis of advanced esophageal cancer may be improved.