Successful definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy in a patient with esophageal cancer and Child–Pugh B cirrhosis of the liver

ABSTRACT

This case report demonstrates successful concurrent chemoradiotherapy for esophageal cancer without severe adverse events in a patient with cirrhotic disease. A 63-year-old Japanese male with alcoholic liver cirrhosis was referred to our hospital for treatment of superficial esophageal cancer. Endoscopic submucosal dissection was performed and the patient was diagnosed as having squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus that was pathologically staged as pT1bN0M0. When a superficial tumor involves the submucosa, esophagectomy is usually recommended. However, the patient was at high risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality because of impaired liver function. As an alternative to esophagectomy, the patient received concurrent chemoradiotherapy, comprising nedaplatin 64 mg/m2 on days 1 and 34 and S-1 80 mg/body orally on days 1–14 and 34–47 with concurrent radiotherapy of 50 Gy in daily fractions of 2 Gy. He has shown no signs of recurrence in the 30 months since his treatment.