Radiation Dose Study of Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy With Cisplatin Plus Fluorouracil in Oesophageal Cancer

Esophageal cancer (EC) continues to be a major health burden worldwide. The 5-year survival rates for esophageal cancer have remained less than 15% over decades, probably because of ineffective therapies and the detection of late-stage cancers. Concurrent chemo-radiotherapy was established as one of the viable options for therapy of patients with localized EC following the results from the landmark trial of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 85-01 trial, showing a significant survival advantage of concurrent chemoradiation over radiation alone.

The use of radiochemotherapy with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is a well-accepted standard for the definitive treatment of esophageal cancer in China which has also been demonstrated efficacy and good tolerability internationally. The AJCC recommended dose range of radiotherapy for concurrent therapy is 45-50.4Gy. Moreover, (RTOG) 85-01 trial also established 50.4 Gy as the standard dose of radiation to be administered concurrently with chemotherapy. However, the appropriate dose of radiation fit for Chinese remains controversial. Due to insufficient evidence of EBM, radiation therapist in China always prescribe a radiation dosage by their own experience. Dosages (e.g. 60-64Gy) significantly higher than the international standard is commonly used in Chinese EC patients which lead to a greater likelihood of toxicity. Thus Chinese oncologists are urgent to reach a consensus about radiation dosage in the standard treatment of local advanced EC.