Background: No effective treatment for advanced esophageal cancer extending to adjacent organs or associated with distant metastasis is known. We prospectively analyzed the efficacy of concurrent chemoradiotherapy with uracil plus tegafur (UFT) and cisplatin (CDDP) for such cases of advanced esophageal cancer.
Methods: Patients with advanced cancers received 60 to 70 Gy of radiotherapy given during a period of 7 weeks, concurrently with daily oral UFT (200 mg/m(2) per day), and a 24-h infusion of CDDP (70 mg/m(2)) on days 8 and 36. After chemoradiotherapy, UFT (250 mg/m(2)/per day) was administered daily for 1 year, while CDDP (80 mg/m(2)) was administered twice every 4 weeks.
Results: Patients with stage III disease numbered 31, while 24 had stage IV disease according to the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging. Including all patients, complete response (CR) occurred in 20% and partial response (PR) in 51%. In stage III patients, CR, PR, and CR+PR rates were 29%, 48%, and 77%, respectively. In stage IV patients, CR, PR, and CR+PR rates were 8%, 54%, and 63%. Grade 4 leukocytopenia occurred in 22% of patients, and grade 3 pain, nausea/vomiting, and oral mucositis occurred in 7%, 9%, and 4% of patients respectively, but resolved after the reduction or discontinuation of chemoradiotherapy. Median survival in stage III patients was 415 days (range, 3 to 3046 days), and in stage IV patients, it was 187 days (range, 75 to 764 days). The 2-year survival rate in stage III patients was 25% and it was 4% in stage IV patients. The 5-year survival rate in stage III patients was 7%, while in stage IV patients it was 0%.
Conclusion: This combined treatment may be a promising nonsurgical management option for locally advanced esophageal cancer, and can achieve good palliative effects in patients with distant metastasis.