ArticleJournal of Cancer2016
Survival and Symptom Relief after Palliative Radiotherapy for Esophageal Cancer.
Article in Journal of Cancer, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Consensus statement of the Hellenic and Cypriot Oesophageal Cancer Study Group on the diagnosis, staging and management of oesophageal cancer.Updates in surgery · 2019Guideline
- Article
- Radiotherapy for Advanced Esophageal Cancer: from Palliation to Curation.Current treatment options in oncology · 2023Review
- Utilization and Outcomes of Radiation in Stage IV Esophageal Cancer.JTO clinical and research reports · 2022Article
- Phase I trial of hypofractionated chemoradiotherapy in the palliative management of esophageal and gastro-esophageal cancer.Radiation oncology (London, England) · 2022Article
- Why is a very easy, useful, old technique underused? An overview of esophageal brachytherapy - interventional radiotherapy.Journal of contemporary brachytherapy · 2022Article
- Palliative radiotherapy and quality of life in patients with locally advanced thoracic esophageal cancer: a single centre experience from Central India.Reports of practical oncology and radiotherapy : journal of Greatpoland Cancer Center in Poznan and Polish Society of Radiation Oncology · 2022Article
- Optimal Management of Dysphagia in Patients with Inoperable Esophageal Cancer: Current Perspectives.Cancer management and research · 2022Review
- Short-course compared to long-course palliative radiotherapy for oesophageal cancer: a single centre observational cohort study.Radiation oncology (London, England) · 2021Observational
- Palliative interventions for patients with incurable locally advanced or metastatic thoracic esophageal carcinoma.Esophagus : official journal of the Japan Esophageal Society · 2019Article
- Effectiveness of several external beam radiotherapy schedules for palliation of esophageal cancer.Clinical and translational radiation oncology · 2019Article
- Palliative external beam radiotherapy for the treatment of tumor bleeding in inoperable advanced gastric cancer.BMC cancer · 2017Article
- Self-Expandable Metallic Stent Placement for the Palliation of Esophageal Cancer.Journal of Korean medical science · 2017Review
- Asymptomatic Cardiac Metastasis in a Diagnosed Case of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Middle Third of Esophagus.Indian journal of palliative careArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe aim of this study was to assess the 6-months dysphagia-free survival, improvement in swallowing function, complication rate, and overall survival in patients with incurable esophageal cancer treated with palliative radiotherapy.
methodsWe retrospectively reviewed data from 139 patients (median age 72 years) with advanced/recurrent incurable esophageal cancer, who were referred to 3 German radiation oncology centers for palliative radiotherapy between 1994 and 2014. Radiotherapy consisted of external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) with 30 - 40.5 Gy/2.5 - 3 Gy per fraction, brachytherapy alone (BT) with 15 - 25 Gy/5 - 7Gy per fraction/weekly and EBRT + BT (30 - 40.5 Gy plus 10 - 14 Gy with BT) in 65, 46, and 28 patients, respectively. Dysphagia-free survival (Dy-PFS) was defined as the time to worsening of dysphagia for at least one point, a new loco-regional failure or death of any cause.
resultsMedian follow-up time was 6 months (range 1-6 months). Subjective symptom relief was achieved in 72 % of patients with median response duration of 5 months. The 1-year survival rate was 30%. The 6-months Dy-PFS time for the whole group was 73 ± 4%. The 6-months Dy-PFS was 90 ± 4% after EBRT, 92 ± 5% after EBRT + BT and 37 ± 7% after BT, respectively (p<0.001). Five patients lived for more than 2 years, all of them were treated with EBRT ± BT. Ulceration, fistula and stricture developed in 3, 6 and 7 patients, respectively.
conclusionsRadiotherapy leads to symptom improvement in the majority of patients with advanced incurable esophageal cancer. The present results favor EBRT ± BT over BT alone. Due to the retrospective nature of this study, imbalances in baseline characteristics might have contributed to this finding, and further trials appear necessary.
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