Clinical Analysis of Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy in the Treatment of Patients with Locally Advanced Esophageal Carcinoma

Objective To explore the effective regimen for patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer.Methods 70 patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer were randomly divided into the radiotherapy alone group (35 patients) and the concurrent chemoradiotherapy group (35 patients).The radiotherapy was the same in the two groups,and was given in 200cGy per fraction,5 fractions per week with a dose of 6000 to 7 000 cGy in 6 to 7 weeks.CF,DF or Taxol was given to patients concurrently in the chemoradiotherapy group.Results The overall response rate (RR ) in the concurrent chemoradiotherapy group was 82.9%,which was significantly higher than that in the radiotherapy alone group (60.0%,P0.05).The 1,2 and 3year overall survival rate was 65.7%,40.0%,28.6% and 54.3%、17.1%、8.6%,respectively.The 2 and 3 year overall survival rates in the concurrent chemoradiotherapy group were signidicantly higher than that in the radiotherapy alone group (P0.05).The myelosuppression and gastrointestinal toxicities were significantly more common in the concurrent chemoradiotherapy group than that in the radiotherapy alone group (P0.05).Conclusion Radiotherapy combined with concurrent chemotherapy is an effective and safe modality in the treatment of patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer,with increased but tolerable toxicities.