Abstract:

Objective  To evaluate the efficacy of chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Methods  Clinical data were retrospectively analyzed for 214 patients with esophageal cancer who underwent surgery between 2008 and 2011. Rates of local recurrence，distant metastasis and survival were compared between 121 patients who underwent both surgery and postoperative chemoradiotherapy，and 93 patients who underwent surgery alone. Results  Patients receiving postoperative chemoradiotherapy showed a significantly lower rate of local recurrence than patients who underwent surgery alone（27.38% vs 45.37%）；a similar result was observed for rate of distant metastasis（31.65% vs 46.23%）（P＜0.05）. Similarly，the postoperative chemoradiotherapy group showed significantly higher overall survival rates at 1 year（98% vs 90%），3 years（74% vs 55%），and 5 years（52% vs 23%）. All patients tolerated their treatment well. Most adverse events were grades 1 and 2；grade 3 adverse events were leucopenia，radiation esophagitis，cough，and anastomotic stenosis. Conclusions Postoperative chemoradiotherapy can provide overall survival benefit to patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Key words: Esophageal neoplasm, Surgical, Postoperative chemoradiotherapy, S-1, Intensity modulated Radiotherapy（IMRT）, Efficacy, Safety