[Radiation therapy and treatment results in carcinoma of the esophagus (author's transl)]. / Strahlentherapie und Behandlungsergebnisse des Osophaguskarzinoms.

Results from radiotherapeutic treatment of 200 patients with malignant tumors of the esophagus are reported. The principal part is represented by squamous cell carcinomas with 88%, followed by adenocarcinomas with 4.5%, by more or less differentiated solid carcinomas with 4%, and small cell carcinomas with 1.5%. Sarcoma was found in three cases, one of them a myosarcoma, another a reticulosarcoma. An ectopic carcinoma of the gastric glands was present in one case. The staging was performed according to the TNM system. A focal dose of 6000 to 6500 rd within 6 or 8 weeks was tried for, using 60Co-gamma-rays. The one-year and five-year survival rates in stage T2N0M0 amounted to 80% and to 17%; no survival was obtained in stage T3N0M0. Out of the total of stage T2-3N0M0 cases 24% obtained one-year survival, and 2% five-year survival. In stages T3N2-3M0 and T3Nx-3M1 after one year 9% and 7% of the patients were alive. The mean survival time of stage T2N0M0 cases was 30.5 months; of T3N0M0, 7.3 months; of T3N1-3M0, 5.2 months; of T3Nx-3M1, 3.8 months. The one-year and five-year survival rates, being related to the irradiation dose administered, amounted to 28% and to 2% after a minimum dose of 5000 rd to the focus. With less than 5000 rd, none of the patients survived two years. The bad results of treatment demand new therapeutic pathways. Short-term pre-irradiation followed by surgical treatment is discussed as well as a combined radiation therapy with cobalt-60 and neutrons or a combined radio-chemotherapy using cytostatics.