Preoperative hyperthermo-chemo-radiotherapy effective for carcinoma of the esophagus.

We prescribed hyperthermo-chemo-radiotherapy preoperatively for 13 patients with esophageal carcinoma. Viable cancer cells disappeared in four out of 13 patients, and all of these four patients survive without recurrence 3 to 34 postoperative months, at this writing. In another seven out of the 13, cancer cells were extensively damaged, despite the presence of a small number of viable cancer cells, and three out of these seven died with a recurrence. For two, the treatment was ineffective, and they died of liver metastasis and a local recurrence, respectively. These findings suggest that preoperative hyperthermia combined with chemotherapy and radiation is highly effective for treatment of carcinoma of the esophagus.