The effect of combined external beam and high-dose intracavitary brachytherapy on dysphagia and survival in patients with advanced esophageal cancer

During an 11-year period, a group of 130 patients with esophageal cancer of stages 2 to 4 were treated with external beam irradiation (40 to 60 Gy) followed by boost dose of 10 to 20 Gy of high-dose intracavitary brachytherapy. The overall 2-year survival rate was 15.4%. The significant prognostic factors were tumor size, response to external beam irradiation, pretreatment dysphagia score, and presence of distant metastases. The palliative effect was excellent; the dysphagia scores of 122 of 130 patients (93.8%) improved. The significant palliative factors were response to external beam irradiation and pretreatment dysphagia score. Tracheoesophageal fistulas developed after treatment in 13 of 130 patients (10%); 3 of the fistulas were probably related to radiotherapy. We conclude that intracavitary brachytherapy is useful in the treatment of cases of advanced cancer which show a good response to external beam irradiation and may be curative in patients with mild dysphagia. (author)