Clinical observation on three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy plus chemotherapy for esophageal carcinoma.

Objective To observe the short-term result and toxicity of 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy(3-DCRT) plus chemotherapy in treatment of esophageal carcinoma.Methods Thirty six patients with esophageal carcinoma were treated by 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy combined with DF(DDP and 5-FU) chemotherapy.RTOG/EORTC grading scheme was applied for assessing the immediate responses,and WHO criteria were used to assess the acute side-effects.Results All 36 patients had completed their treatment course.Among them,18 cases achieved complete response and 10 with partial response,the overall response rate(CR+PR) was77.8%.The overall 1-year survival rate was 61.1% after a median follow-up period of 13 months(ranged from 4 to 23 months).Grade 1～2 and grade 3 acute radiational esophagitis occurred in 80.6%and 27.7% of them respectively.Grade 1～2 and grade 3～4 acute radiational bronchitis occurred in 38.8% and 8.3% of them respectively.Acute bone marrow suppression occurred in 94.4% cases and 63.9% of them were in grade 3～4.Conclusion The 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy(3-DCRT) plus chemotherapy can be considered as an effective measure for treatment of esophageal carcinoma with lower acute complications.Further observation is needed for their later side-effects of irradiation and long-term result.