ASO Author Reflections: The Impact of Local Therapy on Non-metastatic Esophageal Cancer

Excerpt

For patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer, trimodality therapy with chemoradiation followed by esophagectomy has become the standard treatment approach. Studies have shown better survival with trimodality therapy than with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy (RT) alone.1 However, local therapy for esophageal cancer is potentially toxic, and patient refusal of either RT or surgery is not uncommon. A prior study showed decreased overall survival for patients who refuse esophagectomy, but the results were variable depending on the other treatments patients received.2 Refusal of esophageal RT has not been studied previously. This study therefore set out to analyze the impact of refused local therapies on patient outcomes in locally advanced, non-metastatic esophageal cancer. …