Preoperative hyperthermo-chemo-radiotherapy effective for carcinoma of the esophagus

Abstract
We prescribed hyperthermo‐chemo‐radiotherapy preoperatively for 13 patients with esophageal carcinoma. Viable cancer cells disappeared in four out of 13 patients, and all of these four patients survive without recurrence 3 to 34 postoperative months, at this writing. In another seven out of the 13, cancer cells were extensively damaged, despite the presence of a small number of viable cancer cells, and three out of these seven died with a recurrence. For two, the treatment was ineffective, and they died of liver metastasis and a local recurrence, respectively. These findings suggest that preoperative hyperthermia combined with chemotherapy and radiation is highly effective for treatment of carcinoma of the esophagus.