Tratamiento del cáncer de esófago localizado y localmente avanzado: ¿algo ha cambiado?

Esophageal cancer has a dismal prognosis and the surgical treatment only cures a small percentage of patients. The survival achieved by traditional surgical procedures is being improved with extended resections, but at the cost of greater morbidity. Concurrent radiochemotherapy can obtain results similar to those of surgery. Nowadays, locally advanced esophageal cancer should have a multimodal approach, because neoadjuvant chemotherapy, with or without radiotherapy, has demonstrated to improve the survival of chemosensitive patients. Recently, the role of hyperfractionated radiotherapy and new drugs such as paclitaxel, docetaxel and irinotecan in neoadjuvant treatment is being evaluated.