Quality of life after esophagectomy.

Esophagectomy is associated with high complication rates and consequent mortality. The 5-year survival for esophageal cancer is also discouraging with rates of 6 to 33% after surgery. Nonsurgical series of selected patients have shown similar survival. Therefore, quality of life may be a better assessment of patient outcomes than survival. At present few reports have address quality of life in patients after esophagectomy, particularly in those patients who succumb quickly to recurrent cancer. This article investigates the determinants of quality of life after esophagectomy and reviews the use of quality of life measures in comparative trials. Quality of life measures may become valuable tools in the selection of patients for esophagectomy.