Preoperative chemotherapy followed by surgery with possible postoperative radiotherapy in squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus: evaluation of the chemotherapy component.

Twenty-four patients with squamous cell cancer of the esophagus were entered into a treatment protocol consisting of preoperative chemotherapy (CT), surgical resection (SR), and possible postoperative CT or radiation therapy (RT) beginning August 1981. CT consisted of two cycles of 5-fluorouracil, 1,000 mg/m2, by continuous intravenous infusion for 4 days and cisplatin, 100 mg/m2, on day 4 with mannitol-induced diuresis at 4-week intervals. Postoperatively, RT was administered when resection margins were minimal or if paraesophageal nodes were abnormal; the RT consisted of 5,000 to 5,400 cGy to the tumor area plus a 800- to 1,200-cGy boost to known abnormal tumor margins. Nineteen of 24 patients were resectable (79%). There was one SR death (5%). One of 22 had a normal barium swallow post-CT, no visible tumor at SR, and no pathologic evidence of any residual disease. There was complete radiologic and gross clinical disappearance of tumor post-CT or post-SR in ten of 22 patients (45%). Four of 22 (18%) had greater than or equal to 50% regression, and five of 22 (23%) had no response. Toxicity of CT was mild. Eight of 19 patients (42%) received RT, and six of 19 (32%) received CT postoperatively. Sixteen of 24 (67%) are alive with a median duration of observation of 9.5 months. Eight of 24 (33%) are dead, five of whom had not responded to preoperative CT. Ten of 14 responders are alive and disease free. The mean survival time for nonresponders was 6.70 months and for responders, 20.40 months, with the longest survivor disease free at 45 months.