[Results of stomach pull-through operations without thoracotomy in the treatment of advanced esophageal cancer].

Between 1960 and 1983 we have seen 525 cases of oesophagus carcinoma at the Surgical Dept. of the University of Düsseldorf. Up to 1980 we performed the thoraco-abdominal approach with a resection rate of 30%. After that we performed blind dissection of the oesophagus using the abdominal approach only and the resection rate increased to 75%. This last group of patients was treated preoperatively with 3000 R. In spite of very late cancer stages our operative mortality rate decreased considerably and the 2 year survival rate improved. We believe our method to be a standard one because there is a very bad long-term prognosis of the condition.