Surgical treatment for esophageal cancer. Current issues.
Esophageal cancer is one of the most difficult malignancies to cure. The prognosis remains unsatisfactory despite significant advances in surgical techniques and perioperative management. The optimal treatment strategy for localized esophageal cancer has not yet been established. Surgical resection remains the mainstay of treatment for esophageal cancer, and curative resection is the most important surgery. Extended esophagectomy with three-field lymphadenectomy provides the highest quality of tumor clearance and prolongation of patient survival. There has been intense effort in developing novel strategies to treat patients with resectable esophageal cancer. Various combined-modality approaches have been attempted to improve treatment outcomes. Definitive chemoradiotherapy has an impact on long-term survival in patients with resectable esophageal cancer. Accordingly, there are three main combined-modality approaches: esophagectomy with adjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy; primary definitive chemoradiotherapy with or without salvage esophagectomy, and preoperative chemoradiotherapy followed by planned esophagectomy. Recently, owing to the remarkable advances in optical technology, minimally invasive esophagectomy using endoscopic instruments has been introduced into esophageal cancer surgery. This article reviews recent changes in the treatment of esophageal cancer surgery, and considers the role of esophagectomy.
Kato
Hiroyuki
H
Department of General Surgical Science (Surgery I), Gunma University, Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Japan. hiroyuki@po.wind.ne.jp
Fukuchi
Minoru
M
Miyazaki
Tatsuya
T
Nakajima
Masanobu
M
Tanaka
Naritaka
N
Inose
Takanori
T
Kimura
Hitoshi
H
Faried
Ahmad
A
Saito
Kana
K
Sohda
Makoto
M
Fukai
Yasuyuki
Y
Masuda
Norihiro
N
Manda
Ryokuhei
R
Ojima
Hitoshi
H
Tsukada
Katsuhiko
K
Kuwano
Hiroyuki
H
D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D016629:Esophagectomy; D006801:Humans