AbstractIntroduction: Results of treatment in carcinoma esophagus have not been very encouraging as it usually presents in an advanced stage. We treated these inoperable carcinoma esophagus patients with concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy and got early symptomatic relief and good long term survival. Material & Methods: 46 patients included in this study were treated with induction chemotherapy with methotrexate on day 1 and cisplatin on days 2 to 5 followed by radiotherapy from day 6 and further cisplatin was given on days 21, 28 and 35 concurrently with radiotherapy. Results: Symptomatic relief was seen during the second week and 69.56% patients had local control at 1 year. The 3-year and 5-year overall survival (OS) was 47.83% and 15.22% respectively, with a median survival period of 32 months. Conclusion: This regime of sequential chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy and concurrent chemotherapy has given better overall survival with acceptable toxicities.
Keywords: Survival; Esophagus; Chemo-radiotherapy; Long Term.