[Combined radiochemotherapy in treatment of esophageal cancers]

Concomitant radiochemotherapy has totally changed the treatment of oesophagus cancer. After numerous phase II studies that indicated their feasibility and efficacy, randomised phase III studies recently demonstrated their ability to improve survival. In operable cancer, preoperative radiochemotherapy increases the overall survival in adenocarcinoma, and the disease-free survival in squamous cell cancers, in comparison to surgery alone. In locally advanced disease, radiochemotherapy is considered as standard treatment. At this moment the effective drugs are 5-fluorouracil, mitomycin C and cisplatinum. The aims of current studies are to increase further the therapeutic ratio, the ways being refinements of radiotherapy and new chemotherapy delivery modalities. Finally the efficacy of radio-chemotherapy is questionning the role of surgery in this disease.