title: Update: modern approaches to the treatment of localized esophageal cancer.
abstract: The optimal treatment strategy for esophageal cancer continues to be a topic of debate. Improvements in chemotherapy drugs, surgical techniques, and radiotherapy planning and delivery have led to the design of treatment approaches that are specific to both the stage of the tumor and the overall performance status of the patient. Surgery continues to be the standard treatment option for localized disease, but multimodality treatments that include radiation and chemotherapy with surgery are increasingly used. The next few years will continue to see improvements in radiation techniques, especially proton beam treatment; the development of additional minimally invasive surgical approaches to minimize postoperative side effects; and the discovery of molecular biomarkers to help specifically target treatment of esophageal cancer in individual patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030, USA. jwelsh@mdanderson.org
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Welsh
authors.forename: Arya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amini
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Likhacheva
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Erasmus J
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gomez
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Davila
authors.forename: Reza J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Mehran
authors.forename: Ritsuko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Komaki
authors.forename: Zhongxing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Wayne L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Hofstetter
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee H
authors.forename: Manoop S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Bhutani
authors.forename: Jaffer A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ajani
mesh_terms: D055011:Ablation Techniques / Q000379:methods; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant / Q000379:methods; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D061766:Proton Therapy; D011522:Protons
chemical_list: D011522:Protons