Radiotherapy of 180 cases of operable esophageal carcinoma

Table 1 Reasons for administering radiotherapy to 180 patients with esophageal cancer accepted for surgery

Reason	No.	%
Poor cardiac function	21	11.7
Poor pulmonary function	36	20.0
Poor general condition	9	5.0
Senility (68-81 yr)	32	17.7
Refusal by patient or spouse	82	45.6
Total	180	100.0

Table 2 Results of radical radiation therapy for operable esophageal carcinoma

Follow-up	No. of patients	%
1-year	116/180	64
3-year	62/180	34
5-year	42/180	23

Table 3 Comparison of efficacy of surgery with radiotherapy for esophageal carcinoma

Treatment	Author	Year	5-year exploratory survival rate
			No.	%
Surgery	Li et al[9]	1980	59/213	28
	Zhang et al[17]	1994	942/3603	26
Radiotherapy	Present series		42/180	23	26/82 (32%) from patients who refused operation

Table 4 Comparison of results of resectional 5-year survival rates with the present series

Treatment	Author	Year	Operation year	5-year survival rate
				No.	%
Surgery	Wu [15]	1962	1940-1960	18/76	23.7
	Gu [6]	1964	1953-1957	21/91	23.1
	Wu [16]	1979	1957-1973	276-1040	26.6
	Li [10]	1979	1957-1973	164/664	24.7
	Li [9]	1980	1969-1973	59/201	29.4
	Zhang [17]	1980	1952-1978	303/1290	23.5
	Giuli [5]	1980	1970-1979	375/1870	20.1
	Shao [14]	1987	1965-1985	958/2032	47.11
	Jauch [8]	1992	1982-1989	17/86	19.8
	Elias [4]	1992	1982-1990	30/128	23.4
	Vigneswaran [16]	1993	1985-1991	27/131	20.6
	Zhang [17]	1994	1958-1992	942/3099	30.4
Radiotherapy	Present series		1958-1987	42/180	23.3

¹Including some very early lesions as discovered by cytology in public screening.

Table 5 Comparison of surgery with radiotherapy for esophageal cancer in different esophageal segments

Treatment	Author	Year	5-year resection survival rates
			Upper segment		Middle segment		Lower segment
			No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Surgery	Wu et al[15]	1962	0/4	0	5/33	15.2	13/39	33.3
	Gu et al[6]	1964	0/6	0	11/55	20.0	10/29	34.5
	Su et al[13]	1965	2/12	16.6	7/33	21.2	6/24	25.0
	HebaiMed.Univ. et al[12]	1973	10/84	11.9
	Wu et al[16]	1979	3/28	11.7	87/327	26.6	72/220	32.7
	Li et al[9]	1980		26.0		30.0		34.0
	Giuli et al[5]	1980		14.0		15.0		24.0
	Akiyama et al[1]	1980			7/28	25.0	7/24	29.2
	Lin et al[11]	1983	9/43	20.9	89/388	17.8	80/288	27.8
	Elias et al[4]	1992		6.4		17.2		28.9
	Vigneswaran et al[14]	1994	9/49	18.4
	Cancer 1Hosp. CAMS		93/311	29.9	398/1303	30.5	169/577	39.3
Radiotherapy	Present series2		12/27	44.4	28/125	22.4	4/28	14.3

¹Material of Dept. Thoracic Surgical Oncology to be published.

²Exploratory 5-year survival rates.

Table 6 Influence of lesion length of operable esophageal cancer on result of radiotherapy

Segment	Lesion length (cm)	5-year survival rate
		No.	%
Upper1	< 3	4/9	44.4
	3-4.9	3/6	50.0
	> 5	5/12	41.7
Mid	< 3	2/7	28.6
	3-4.9	6/33	18.2
	> 5	18/85	21.2
Lower	< 3	1/4	25.0
	3-4.9	1/9	11.1
	> 5	2/15	13.3
		42/180	23.3

¹Including four lesions in the cervical esophagus

Table 7 Influence of reasons for rejecting surgery on result of radiotherapy in operable esophageal carcinoma

Causes of rejecting surgery	5-year survival rate
	n	%
Poor cardiac function	4/21	19
Poor pulmonary function	5/36	14
Poor general condition	0/9	0
Senility	7/32	22
Patient refusal	26/82	32
Total	42/180	23