[The effect of preoperative radiation therapy on the results of the combined treatment of esophageal cancer].

The authors resorted to multifactor comparative analysis of the results of surgical (218) and combined (413) treatment of patients with thoracic esophageal cancer to study the interrelationship of the main factors, determining a cancer stage, their prognostic value, and a degree of influence of preoperative modalities on these factors. Preoperative irradiation was shown to increase resectability of the esophagus with tumor extent over 5 cm and to improve the prognosis of disease.