Improved survival with neoadjuvant therapy and resection for adenocarcinoma of the esophagus

This study sought to determine the impact of preoperative chemotherapy and radiation therapy (neoadjuvant therapy) followed by resection in patients with adenocarcinoma of the esophagus.

Long-term survival in patients with carcinoma of the esophagus has been poor. An increase in the incidence of adenocarcinoma of the esophagus has been reported recently.

Fifty-eight patients with biopsy-proven adenocarcinoma of the esophagus treated at this institution from January 1951 through February 1993 were studied. Since 1989, 24 patients were entered prospectively into a multimodality treatment protocol consisting of preoperative cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and leucovorin with or without etoposide, and concomitant mediastinal radiation (30 Gy). Patients were re-evaluated and offered resection.

There were no deaths related to neoadjuvant therapy and toxicity was minimal. Before multimodality therapy was used, the operative mortality rate was 19% (3 of 16 patients). With multimodality therapy, there have been no operative deaths (0 of 23 patients). The median survival time in patients treated before multimodality therapy was 8 months and has yet to be reached for those treated with the neoadjuvant regimen (> 26 months, p < 0.0001). The actuarial survival rate at 24 months was 15% before multimodality therapy and 76% with multimodality therapy. No difference in survival was noted in neoadjuvant protocols with or without etoposide (p = 0.827).

Multimodality therapy with preoperative chemotherapy and radiation therapy followed by resection appears to offer a survival advantage to patients with adenocarcinoma of the esophagus.