title: Immunotherapy for esophageal cancer. A randomized trial in combination with radiotherapy and radiochemotherapy. Cooperative Study Group for Esophageal Cancer in Japan.
abstract: We investigated the effect of multimodal therapy in 187 patients with esophageal cancer. All patients were followed up over a period of 5 years. Among the 187 patients, 174 (93.1%) eligible patients with biopsy-proved esophageal squamous cell carcinoma underwent esophagectomy and were randomly assigned to receive radiotherapy (RT) with or without protein-bound polysaccharide (PSK), or RT plus chemotherapy (CT) with or without PSK. The 5-year survival rates of patients with RT, RT+PSK, RT+CT and RT+CT+PSK were 40.0%, 42.3%, 29.1% and 37.2%, respectively. There was a tendency for longer survival on PSK, but statistical significance was not reached (RT+CT group versus RT+CT+PSK group: log-rank and generalized Wilcoxon tests, P = .1930, P = .1034). However, Cox multivariate regression analysis indicated that postoperative therapy with or without PSK was the most significant prognostic factor for patients receiving RT+CT and for the eligible patients. These results indicate that PSK may have a beneficial effect on esophageal carcinoma when given in combination with CT+RT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery II, Tokai University, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ogoshi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Satou
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Isono
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mitomi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Endoh
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sugita
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007155:Immunologic Factors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011509:Proteoglycans / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D007155:Immunologic Factors; D011509:Proteoglycans; C010770:polysaccharide-K