Recent advances in radiotherapy for esophageal cancer

Abstract

Although radiotherapy is administered to about half of the cancer patients world wide, radiotherapy is administered to less than one fourth of such patients in Japan. Currently, the number of the patients who receive radiotherapy has been increasing gradually in Japan probably because of the globalization of medical information and aging of the patients. Cancers of the digestive tract are usually good candidates for surgery, but esophageal cancer is also a good candidate for radiotherapy. Most cases are good candidates for chemoradiotherapy using platinum, 5FU and taxans. Chemoradiotherapy using these agents has been reported to improve local control and survival rates. Recent advances in radiotherapy technology, such as intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) assure more effective and safer treatment for all cancer patients and further developments in radiotherapy regimens are expected to continue.