[Chemotherapy of esophageal carcinoma]

In metastatic esophageal cancer, single agent or combination chemotherapy induces short remissions in only a minority of patients. Therefore, only selected patients should be treated. More than half of patients with locoregional disease will experience significant improvement through cisplatinum-based combination chemotherapy. However, this has so far not shown itself to influence overall survivaL. Combination chemo-radiotherapy is superior to radiotherapy alone in locoregional disease. Studies in operable esophageal cancer comparing chemo-radiotherapy with surgery alone have not so far been reported.