Radiotherapy of esophageal carcinoma: an assessment of patients treated at Tübingen from 1977 to 1982

We report on the results of therapy of 116 patients with esophagus carcinoma. The patients have been attended to at the Medical Radiation Institute of Tübingen between 1977 and 1982. In 95 cases sole radiation was performed as operation was impossible. The other patients underwent a combined surgical-radiotherapeutical treatment. The joint doses of radiation applied ran from 50 to 70 Gy in five to seven weeks' time. In particular we considered the total survival rate according to tumor stage, the local tumor control and the period until relapse. 22% of the primarily irradiated patients achieved complete remission, 42% reached particular remission and 15% achieved minimal tumor remission (total response rate: 79%). Merely in 8% of the cases the tumor did not respond perceptibly. In the other cases irradiation had to be interrupted because of general worsening, or the patients got lost to post-therapeutical observation. The total survival rates, all stages taken into account, arose as follows: one year: 36.8%, two years: 12.6%, five years: 7.3%. After sole radiotherapy in 67% of the cases which had a radiologically verified relapse more than six months passed by before a local recurrence tumor was stated. The bad prognosis of the esophagus carcinoma, as demonstrated in literature, is entirely confirmed-the negative selection of our patients taken into account. The high rank of radiotherapy in achieving effective palliation is emphasized.