[Epidermoid cancer of the esophagus: is the combination of chemotherapy then surgery beneficial?].

Ninety-two patients with carcinoma of the esophagus were treated with pre-operative chemotherapy (2 courses) before undergoing surgery. Chemotherapy and/or radiation were carried out after surgery depending on the tumor response to chemotherapy and extent of the tumor found at surgery. Tumor response before surgery (according to OMS criteria) was determined in 84 patients. Forty-four percent of patients showed a tumor regression of over 50%. Curative surgery was more frequently performed in patients with good tumor regression (greater than 50%) than in patients with less satisfactory tumor regression (less than 50%) (76 versus 57.5% respectively) (P = 0.08). Patients who underwent curative surgery had a lower pathologic staging when tumor regression was over 50%. However, the number of patients is too limited for any definite conclusions to be made. Survival rate at 3 years was similar in both groups of patients with curative surgery. Survival was not influenced by the extent of tumor regression before surgery. This study also suggests that the pre-operative chemotherapy did not increase the survival rate of patients who underwent curative surgery. Therefore it does not seem advisable to undertake a phase III randomized study on pre-operative chemotherapy patients.