title: Oesophagus side effects related to the treatment of oesophageal cancer or radiotherapy of other thoracic malignancies.
abstract: The oesophagus as a serial organ located in the central chest is frequent subject to "incidental" dose application in radiotherapy for several thoracic malignancies including oesophageal cancer itself. Especially due to the radiosensitive mucosa severe radiotherapy induced sequelae can occur, acute oesophagitis and strictures as late toxicity being the most frequent side-effects. In this review we focus on oesophageal side effects derived from treatment of gastrointestinal cancer and secondly provide an overview on oesophageal toxicity from conventional and stereotactic fractionated radiotherapy to the thoracic area in general. Available data on pathogenesis, frequency, onset, and severity of oesophageal side effects are summarized. Whereas for conventional radiotherapy the associations of applied doses to certain volumes of the oesophagus are well described, the tolerance dose to the mediastinal structures for hypofractionated therapy is unknown. The review provides available attempts to predict the risk of oesophageal side effects from dosimetric parameters of SBRT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Partner Site Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address: sonja.adebahr@uniklinik-freiburg.de.
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Adebahr
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address: tanja.schimek-jasch@uniklinik-freiburg.de.
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schimek-Jasch
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Partner Site Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Nestle
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Partner Site Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address: thomas.brunner@uniklinik-freiburg.de.
authors.forename: Thomas B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Brunner
mesh_terms: D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D004941:Esophagitis / Q000209:etiology*; D004947:Esophagus / Q000528:radiation effects*; D006801:Humans; D013899:Thoracic Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*
keywords: Chemoradiotherapy; Gastrointestinal cancer; Oesophagus toxicity; Radiotherapy; Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT)