The palliative value of surgical resection for carcinoma of the esophagus.

The authors review their experience with primary resection for carcinoma of the esophagus and compare the palliative results with those of a recently reported series of similar patients treated with radiotherapy alone. Between 1971 and 1977, 104 patients with carcinoma of the esophagus underwent resection as the primary therapy. The operative mortality was 7.7% (1.7% in the latter half of the series). At least 80% of the 104 patients had complete, continuing palliation of their dysphagia. Radiotherapy in a similar group of patients reported resulted in an 8% mortality from complications of the treatment and there was local recurrence of the tumour, usually associated with dysphagia, in 80%. The authors conclude that the palliation achieved with surgical resection is substantially better than that achieved with radical radiotherapy applied to a similarly staged group of patients with carcinoma of the esophagus.