Preoperative Radiotherapy For Esophageal Carcinoma

Esophageal carcinoma is a high incidence disease in China ,with a mortality rate of 17.38/100 000,which is16.41% of the deaths of cancer and over 50% deaths of the esophageal carcinoma all over the world,its five year survival rate is lower than 10%. Surgical resection is considered to be the first choice for the treatment of the esophageal carcinoma.With the development of anesthesia,surgical technique and management of perioperation period,surgical resection rate has increased,postoperative complication and mortality rate decreased,however,the five-year survival rate after operation has still remained 20%-30%. This is because the most patients are in advanced stage at diagnosis,and have no opportunity to be operated on.Therefore,combined therapy is suggested for these patients. Degenerating and inactivating the cancer cells,deflating and softening the tumor, embolizing the vessels of the tumour,and eliminating micrometastasis,the radiotherapy is confirmed effective to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Radiotherapy is one important treatment in the combined therapy,because some patients in late stage can regain the chance of curative surgery by the treatment.As for the effectiveness of preoperative radiotherapy,it is coincident that preoperative radiotherapy can improve the resection rate,decrease the local recurrence and lymph node metastasis,without increasing the difficulty of operation ,postoperative mortality rate and complication rate.But it is still conflicting whether preoperative radiotherapy can improve the long-term survival rate.