Cancer of the esophagus: outcome of neoadjuvant therapy on surgical morbidity and mortality

Prognosis of oesophageal cancer is poor. There have been phase II-III trials of postoperative chemotherapy with the aim of improving survival. Chemoradiotherapy seems more promising than both chemotherapy and radiotherapy alone. In contrast, better results obtained with chemoradiotherapy were associated with an increase in morbidity and mortality, and finally overall survival was uncommonly improved. It is necessary to implement new multidisciplinary randomised trial.