[Problems and present status of clinical trials for esophageal carcinoma]

This paper reviews clinical trials for esophageal carcinoma, mainly from the results of the JEOG (Japanese Esophageal Oncology Group) study. Preoperative radiotherapy was not conducive to survival of esophageal cancer patients. On the third JEOG trial, postoperative chemotherapy of CDDP+VDS was equivalent to survival as 50Gy of postoperative irradiation. And on the further fourth trial, survival was also equivalent between the two groups treated with surgery alone or postoperative chemotherapy of CDDP+VDS. This fact reveals the in effectiveness of these therapies. The response rate from JEOG phase II study of CDDP and 5-FU was 35.9%, and RCT of surgery alone versus surgery + postoperative chemotherapy with CDDP+5-FU was ongoing as the fifth JEOG trial. Chemo-radiotherapy seemed to be very effective for esophageal cancer patients, and it may provide a complete cure for them in the future.