Radiotherapy for esophageal cancer

The correlation between the local effect and the prognosis of 124 esophageal carcinomas treated curatively with irradiation has been examined. The local effect at 40 Gy was found to correlate well with the prognosis. A high local control rate can be expected in cases of a superficial type, a tumorous type and in some cases of an ulcerative type, even though no change was seen in Ba study at 40 Gy. In well advanced ulcerative cases, in infiltrative cases, and in cases that show no change at 40 Gy, the radiation method should be altered positively after 40 Gy to achieve better local control because metastases are relatively few. (author)