Radiotherapy of mediastinal metastasis after radical operation in esophageal carcinoma / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the significance of radiotherapy of mediastinal metastasis after radical surgery for thoracic esophageal carcinoma. Methods Seventy six patients with esophageal carcinoma who developed mediastinal metastasis 3～18 months after radical surgery were retrospectively analyzed. The size of mediastinal metastasis was 3?cm in 32. Nine of these patients had metastasis in neck lymph nodes and 3 had distant metastasis as well. Radiotherapy was given with a Cobalt 60 unit. The radiation dose ranged from 10.8?Gy to 75.0?Gy by conventional fractionation. Results Nine patients did not finish radiotherapy and all of them died within one year of (after) treatment. The mean of survival time was 4.9 months. Sixty seven patients received radiation of 50～70?Gy. The corresponding overall survivals at 1, 2, and 3 years were 75.0% (57/76), 27.6% (21/76) and 9.2% (7/76), respectively. Conclusion Radical radiotherapy may improve the prognosis with an appropriate tumor dose of 65～75?Gy.