title: Treatment of advanced esophageal cancer by means of irradiation, cisplatinum and 5-fluorouracil.
abstract: In the years 1985-1990, 30 patients with locally advanced and/or disseminated cancer of the esophagus (Stages III and IV) were treated by radiotherapy (RT) and chemotherapy (ChT) containing cisplatinum and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). The median survival of the patients was 8 months (range 2.5-39 months); 13 Stage III patients survived 3-36 months respectively (median 11 months), while 17 Stage IV patients survived 2.5-27 months, respectively (median 6.5 months). The survival depended statistically significantly (p < 0.05) only on the presence or absence of residual tumor after therapy and not on other parameters observed. Clinical response to treatment was evaluated in 16/30 patients as follows: CR was obtained in 4 patients, PR in two, and NR in 10 patients. Median survival of 4 patients with CR was 31 months; relatively high rate of CR (4/16) could be explained by the small number of patients. However, favorable survival results in individual patients may be expected even in larger series, though the rate responders may be somewhat lower than that obtained in our study.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Oncology, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Benulic
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jancar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D002945:Cisplatin; D005472:Fluorouracil