Therapeutic results of chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy in treatment of advanced esophageal cancer

The objective of this study was to explore the curative effect and side-effects of chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy in the treatment of advanced esophageal cancer.The data of seventy-two esophageal cancer patients were analyzed retrospectively.The patients were divided into two groups based on the different treatment methods.Group A received chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy,while group B received chemotherapy only.Chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy was more effective than chemotherapy,χ2=6.020,P=0.014.One-,three-and five-year survival rates of group A were significant higher than those of group B respectively(χ2 were 9.758,4.431 and 4.546 respectively;P were 0.002,0.035 and 0.033 respectively).The most common toxicities were digestive tract effect and neutropenia.There were no grade 4 clinical toxicity and treatment-related death in the series.Systemic adverse effects frequently occurred during the radiotherapy were esophagitis and fatigue,which were tolerable.In conclusion,chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy is currently an effective method in the treatment of advanced esophageal cancer.