The Role of Radiotherapy in Esophageal Cancer

A retrospective analysis was undertaken of 46 patients who were referred with squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus during the period of March 1979 through October 1982, and who were treated by curative radiotherapy in the Department of Therapeutic Radiology Soul National University Hospital. The overall tow-year actuarial survival rate was 20%. Survival was analyzed with respect to the site of the cancer, its size, radiation dose, and degree of response. Patients with the best two-year survival rate are the ones who had the tumor no of more than 5cm in length(39.3%) or confined to the upper third of the esophagus (29.5%). An optimum radiation dose ranged from 1600 to 1700 rets. patients to complete response had 42.4% of two-year actuarial survival, but those to no response had 0% of survival