Phase II Study of Neo-adjuvant Chemoradiotherapy for Squamous Cell Esophageal Cancer

The investigators designed a new preoperative chemoradiotherapy regimen to focus on the most important radiation area and hope to reduce the radiation volume and try to reduce the postoperative mortality and treatment-related mortality.

Esophageal cancer (EC) is the eighth most common cancers in the world, with more than 480,000 new cases and 400,000 deaths occurred annually worldwide. In China, either new cases or deaths account for more than half of the world. Morever, over 90% of Chinese patients have esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

Surgery is the main treatment of this disease, but the prognosis of patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer is rather poor. As a result of surgery alone, the 5-year survival rate of about 25% has not changed significantly in several decades.

Neo-adjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery seems hopeful to improve the survival of EC. Recently, the CROSS trial has demonstrated that preoperative chemoradiotherapy can significantly increased the overall survival of patients with EC compared with surgery alone. However,a recent meta-analysis has indicated that an increased risk of postoperative mortality and treatment-related mortality was apparent in ESCC with the treatment of neo-adjuvant chemoradiotherapy.

Compare to surgery alone,the advantage of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is reflected in the significantly higher percentage of R0 resections and higher rate of pathological complete response.

Thus,the investigators designed a new preoperative chemoradiotherapy regimen to focus on the most important radiation area and hope to reduce the radiation volume and try to reduce the postoperative mortality and treatment-related mortality.

Radiotherapy:Patients will be conducted CT simulation, and three-dimensional radiation therapy or Intensity-modulated radiation therapy was performed. 1.8Gy/fraction, 5 fractions a week, with a total dose of 4140cgy will be delivered for all patients by 6-MV-X-ray of linear accelerator.

Chemotherapy:Patients will be concurrently administered with irradiation every 4 weeks with PF regimen (cis-platinum of 25 mg/m2/d, d1-3; 5-fluorouracil of 500mg/m2/d, d1-4) for 2 cycles.

Surgery:Patients will receive operation 4-8 weeks after chemoradiotherapy.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

1. Histologic diagnosis of squamous cell thoracic esophageal carcinoma of Stage IIB or III, which is potentially resectable.
2. Patients must not have received any prior anticancer therapy.
3. More than 6 months of expected survival.
4. Age ranges from 18 to 70 years.
5. Absolute white blood cells count ≥4.0×109/L, neutrophil ≥1.5×109/L, platelets ≥100.0×109/L, hemoglobin ≥90g/L, and normal functions of liver and kidney.
6. Karnofsky performance status (KPS) of 90 or more.
7. Signed informed consent document on file.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Patients are diagnosed or suspected to be allergic to cisplatin or 5-Fu.
2. Patients with concomitant hemorrhagic disease.
3. Pregnant or breast feeding.
4. Inability to use gastric conduit after esophagectomy because of a prior surgery.
5. Patients with concomitant peripheral neuropathy, whose CTC status is 2 or even more.
6. Have a prior malignancy other than esophageal carcinoma, carcinoma in situ of the cervix, nonmelanoma skin cancer or cured early stage of prostate cancer.