Esophageal cancer management controversies: Radiation oncology point of view

Table 1 Important randomized trials for preoperative chemoradiation n (%)

Ref.	n	Histology	Treatment	R0	pCR	Op mortality	MS	3 YS	Locoregional failure
Nygaard et al[10], 1992		Sq	S	37%	-	5 (3.4)	Approximately 0.6 yr	Approximately 9%	-
			CB → S	41%		6 (4.0)	Approximately 0.7 yr	Approximately 2%
			R → S	40%		4 (2.7)	Approximately 0.9 yr	Approximately 20%
			CB + R → S	55% (Gp 4 vs 1, P = 0.08)		8 (5.4)	Approximately 0.7 yr	Approximately 18%
Walsh et al[11], 1996	113	A	CF + R → S	-	25%	5 (10.4)	16	32%	-
			S	-	0%	2 (3.7)	11 mo	6%	-
							P = 0.01	P = 0.01
Bosset et al[12], 1997	282	Sq	C + R → S	-	26%	17 (12.3)	18.6 mo	36%	-
			S	-	0%	5 (3.6)	18.6 mo	34%	-
								See text
Urba et al[13], 2001	100	75% A	CFV + R → S	90%	28%	1 (2.1)	16.9 mo	30%	19%
		25% Sq	S	90%	0%	2 (4)	17.6 mo NS	16%	42%
									P = 0.02
Burmeister et al[14], 2005	256	37% Sq	CF + R → S	80%	16%	5 (4.8)	22.2 mo	35%	15%
		62% A	S	59%	0%	6 (5.5)	19.3 mo	30%	19%
		1% mixed/other						See text
Tepper et al[15], 2008	56	25% Sq	CF + R → S	-	33%	0 (0)	4.5 yr	39%	13%
		75% A	S		0%	1 (3.8)	1.8 yr	16%	15%
							P = 0.002	5 YS
Cao et al[9], 2009	366	Sq	CFM → S	87%	1.7%	0%	Approximately 42 mo	Approximately 69%	-
			R → S	98%	15%	0%	Approximately 42 mo	69%
			CFM + R → S	98%	22%	0%	Approximately 60 mo	74%
			S	73%	0%	0%	Approximately 42 mo	53%
								P = 0.013
van Hagen et al[16], 2012	366	23% Sq	JT + R → S	92%	29%	6 (4)	49.4 mo	58%	-
	T1-3	75% A	S	69%	0%	8 (4)	24 mo	44%
	N0-1	2% other						P = 0.03
	M0

-: Not reported; A: Adenocarcinoma; B: Bleomycin; C: Cisplatin; F: 5-flurouracil; Gp: Group; J: Carboplatin; M: Mitomycin; MS: Median survival; NS: Non-significant; Op: Operative mortality using number of patients actually operated as denominator; pCR: Pathological complete response; R: RT; R0: No residual tumor; S: Surgery; Sq: Squamous cell carcinoma; T: Paclitaxel; V: Vinblastine; YS: Year survival.