Combination therapy of esophageal carcinoma with radiation and bleomycin

The concurrent combination therapy of radiation and Bleomycin was performed in a total of 175 cases of esophageal carcinoma. In 107 (63%) cases of them, in which the scheduled curative treatment was completed, yearly survival rates were 60% in one, 30% in two, 20% in three and 7% in five years. The local recurrence was noted in 60% and remote metastases were observed in 38% of them. These results were intimately correlated to tumor advancement and cancer type. From the results, it was concluded that this combination therapy should be valuable to prolong the life of a cancer patient, improving one to three year survival rates, and that the curable indications for this treatment should be T1 M0 and T2 M0 with tumorous or some ulcerous types of carcinoma. (author)