[A case of esophageal cancer with intramural metastasis demonstrates a good clinical course after induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiation].

A 63-year-old man with dysphagia visited our hospital in February 2007. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy and computed tomography revealed that he suffered from advanced esophageal cancer with intramural metastasis at clinical stage III (T3N1). The patient underwent induction chemotherapy because he had great difficulty deciding which treatment would be more beneficial for him use dash surgery or chemoradiation. The reason for his in decision was that esophageal cancer with intramural metastasis is known to have a poor prognosis after surgery, and although chemoradiation is the more attractive therapy that avoids invasive surgery, it is very difficult to predict a response. Currently, he has survived for more than 3 years with no recurrence, after chemoradiation that followed a good response to induction chemotherapy. This result suggested that induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiation can be one of the useful strategies for patients who have esophageal cancer with a negative prognosis factor for surgery, such as intramural metastasis.