[Study of surgical treatment and nonsurgical treatment as palliation for unresectable esophageal cancer].

A retrospective study was carried out to evaluate treatment in 24 patients with unresectable esophageal cancer who underwent bypass operation (group A; n = 11) or esophageal prosthesis intubation (group B; n = 13), regarding food intake, quality of life and survival. The results were as follows: 1) According to the preoperative or intraoperative findings, all the patients, except one case is group A, were diagnosed as A3 (2 case in group B had a esophago-bronchial fistula). 2) After surgery, oral food intake was possible in only 2 patients in group A, and intake of a regular diet was possible in all patients in group B, after intubation. 3) In group A, none of the patients except 1, could be discharged because of postoperative complication, and they died in the hospital. The mean postoperative survival period was 63 +/- 74 days. On the other hand, fatal complications were not observed in group B, and 8 patients were discharged from the hospital (2 of them could resume work). The mean survival period, including 1 survivor, was 136 +/- 101 days, that is significantly longer than that in group A (p < 0.05). From these results, we concluded that esophageal intubation is useful for cases of unresectable esophageal cancer.