Radiotherapy (RT) or chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is a potentially curative, non-surgical treatment option for esophageal cancer, although the rate of local failure within the esophagus remains relatively high. Salvage esophagectomy is not regarded as a common treatment for esophageal cancer, since it is a high-risk surgery with a relatively high surgical mortality rate. Salvage endoscopic resection...

Radiation therapy (RT) as part of multidisciplinary oncologic care has been marked by profound advancements over the past decades. As part of multimodality therapy for esophageal cancer (EC), a prime goal of RT is to minimize not only treatment toxicities, but also postoperative complications and hospitalizations. Herein, discussion commences with the historical approaches to treating EC, inclu...

PURPOSE Despite aggressive chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, or combination approaches, the survival rate of patients with esophageal cancer remains poor. Recent studies have suggested that constitutive activation of the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway in cancers of the digestive tract may contribute to the growth and maintenance of cancer. However, the relationship between Hh signaling and therapeuti...

Background. While neoadjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy has improved outcomes for esophageal cancer patients, surgical complication rates remain high. The most frequent perioperative complications after trimodality therapy were cardiopulmonary in nature. The radiation modality utilized can be a strong mitigating factor of perioperative complications given the location of the esophagus and it...

Objective. To compare adjuvant radiotherapy and salvage radiotherapy after radical resection for treatment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods. Data from 155 patients with locally advanced ESCC who underwent radical resection and received postoperative radiotherapy from 2005 to 2011 were reviewed. Seventy-nine patients received adjuvant radiotherapy and 76 received salvage rad...

CONTEXT Esophageal cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage and has a poor prognosis. Most patients with advanced esophageal cancer have significant dysphagia that contributes to weight loss and malnutrition. Esophageal stenting is a widespread palliation approach, but unsuitable for cancers near the upper esophageal sphincter, were stents are poorly tolerated. Generally, guidelines do no...

An anti-tumor immune response is one of the most important factors that can determine treatment response and prognosis of cancer patients. Recent studies have demonstrated that radiotherapy can activate tumor-specific immune responses and that these responses contribute to the therapeutic efficacy. However, the exact mechanisms underlying the radiation-induced immune responses remain unclear. B...

Patients who receive radiotherapy for tumors in the chest may experience radiation-induced heart disease (RIHD). This late and potentially severe side effect of radiotherapy can occur if all or part of the heart lies in the radiation field. Patients particularly at risk include breast cancer patients previously treated with radiotherapy, lung cancer patients, lymphoma patients, and patients wit...

BACKGROUND The single most distressing symptom for patients with advanced esophageal cancer is dysphagia. Amongst the more effective treatments for relief of dysphagia is insertion of a self-expanding metal stent (SEMS). It is possible that the addition of a palliative dose of external beam radiotherapy may prolong the relief of dysphagia and provide additional survival benefit. The ROCS trial ...

BACKGROUND Esophageal cancer is a common malignant tumor of the gastrointestinal tract and is typically diagnosed at an advanced stage due to the absence of early clinical symptoms. Although surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy represent the major treatment methods employed for this cancer, the prognosis of esophageal cancer remains poor. METHODS A Ph.D.-12TM Phage Display Peptide Library ...