In otherwise healthy people with localized disease, surgery may offer the best chance at long-term survival. Surgery involves removing the diseased portion of your esophagus and connecting the remaining portion to your stomach. Preoperative chemotherapy and radiation often accompany surgery. Studies now under way will determine whether combination chemotherapy and radiation therapy without surgery is as effective as surgery in allowing for long-term survival. In cases where the cancer has spread to organs beyond your esophagus, long-term survival is uncommon.
Recovery improves when doctors detect the cancer at an early stage.
Once cancer invades the muscle layer of your esophagus, most people already have developed widespread cancer. For these people, cancers invariably come back following surgical removal. Few people survive long term. Following completion of therapy, whether with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or a combination of these, you will need regular follow-up endoscopic examinations as well as repeat CT scans of your chest and abdomen. Often, people who undergo surgery of their esophagus develop significant narrowing at the site of the surgery.