[Perioperative chemotherapy in squamous cell carcinomas of the esophagus].

In the majority of patients with esophageal cancer local tumor infiltration and/or distant metastases are responsible for the poor prognosis. Therefore to improve life expectancy additional modalities - chemotherapy alone or in combination with simultaneous radiation - have been introduced perioperatively. In spite of a possible increase of resectability convincing data are lacking which could argue for an uncontrolled introduction of the neoadjuvant approach outside investigational studies.