Salvage surgery for the T4 esophageal cancer following downstaging by neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy

The standard modality of the treatment for the patients with T4 esophageal cancer, whose prognosis still remains quite poor, is not established yet. Salvage surgery for the T4 esophageal cancer following downstaging by neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy has become to be available. During the period from 1992 to 96, 30 patients with the suspected T4 esophageal cancer underwent chemoradiotherapy, which consisted of two courses of CDDP/5-FU with-sequential or concurrent 50-60Gy radiotherapy. Among them eleven patients became to be resectable by means of thoracotomy and laparotomy and pathological CRs were obtained in either primary lesions or lymph nodes. The longest survival term following surgery is 36 months. Three patients died of cancer recurrence including the organ metastasis and one died from pyothorax without cancer due to severe immunosuppression attributable to chemoradiation. Our results warrants further studies of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for the patients with T4 esophageal cancer.