Is Concurrent Chemotherapy With Radiotherapy for Esophageal Cancer Beneficial in Patients Aged 80 Years or Older?

BACKGROUND/AIM: To determine whether concurrent chemotherapy with radiotherapy should be performed in elderly patients with esophageal cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A total of 185 patients aged 80 years or older who were treated with definitive radiotherapy alone or combined with chemoradiotherapy for esophageal cancer at seven institutions were enrolled. In order to compare survival rates of patients treated with chemoradiotherapy with those of patients treated with radiotherapy alone, propensity score matching was performed to homogenize the two populations.

RESULTS

For the whole patient cohort, the 3-year overall survival (OS) rate was 52.6% and the median survival was 42.5 months. After propensity score matching, the 3-year OS rate for the chemoradiotherapy group was not significantly better than that for the group treated with radiotherapy alone (53.7% vs. 59.9%, p=0.876).

CONCLUSION

Concurrent chemotherapy with radiotherapy for esophageal cancer in patients aged 80 years or older did not have significant OS benefit over radiotherapy alone.