Objective: The study objective was to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of chemoradiotherapy with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) plus cisplatin in patients with Stage I esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The primary endpoint was proportion of complete response (%CR).
Methods: Patients with Stage I (T1N0M0) ESCC, aged 20-75 years, without indication of endoscopic mucosal resection were eligible. Treatment consisted of cisplatin 70 mg/m(2) (day 1) and 5-FU 700 mg/m(2)/day (days 1-4) combined with 30 Gy radiotherapy (2 Gy/day, 5 days/week, days 1-21). The cycle was repeated twice with 1-week split. Salvage surgery was recommended for residual tumor or local recurrence.
Results: From December 1997 to June 2000, 72 patients were enrolled. No ineligible patient or major protocol violation was observed. There were 63 CRs for %CR of 87.5% [95% confidence interval (CI): 77.6-94.1]. Six patients with residual tumor successfully underwent esophagectomy. There was no Grade 4 toxicity. Four-year survival proportion was 80.5% (95% CI: 71.3-89.7), and 4-year major relapse-free survival proportion was 68% (95% CI: 57.3-78.8) (mucosal recurrence removed by endoscopy was not counted as an event).
Conclusions: High CR proportion and survival proportion with mild toxicity suggest that this regimen could be considered as a candidate of new standard treatment to be compared with surgery in patients with Stage I ESCC.