Esophageal cancer. Early efforts and proposals of the LCSG

The Lung Cancer Study Group, just prior to its demise, initiated efforts to develop clinical trials comparing primary resection for esophageal cancer with multimodality therapy. In initiating these proposals, a new staging system and map were developed that conformed to the staging system available for pulmonary malignancies. This staging system and map are currently being used by the ongoing intergroup trial in North America (INT-113).