Postoperative cancer therapy for patients with carcinoma of the thoracic esophagus: An attempt of aggressive chemotherapy combined with proper nutritional support for patients with distant node metastasis.

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Abstract
The prognosis of patients with advanced thoracic esophageal carcinoma is still poor. In general, patients having distant lymph node metastasis do not survive for > 3 yr. Therefore, a new therapeutic regimen employing aggressive chemotherapy for these patients was attempted. Three anticancer drugs pepleomycin, and twice as much as adriamycin and mitomycin as the conventional level for a short period of time were used. Eleven cases were treated with this chemotherapy under active enteral and parenteral nutritional support of 45-50 kcal/kg daily. Two patients over 70 yr of age died of pneumonitis. Four patients with recurrence of cancer in the lungs, liver and cervical nodes died 10, 12, 13 and 14 mo. following surgery, respectively. Five patients have been alive for > 2 yr. This therapy evidently is more effective than other conventional therapies. Aggressive chemotherapy combined with proper nutritional support is effective for patients with node metastasis.