Multimodality treatment strategy for squamous cell oesophageal cancer

Cancer of the oesophagus is notorious for its grave prognosis of an overall 5-year survival rate of 10–20%. Surgical resection with curative intent remains the most effective treatment for this disease. To improve survival, a multimodality treatment strategy was adopted for managing patients with oesophageal cancer. The use of pre-operative adjuvant chemotherapy did not confer any survival benefit to patients with localized oesophageal cancer, as is proven by most randomized studies; however, the preliminary results of pre- operative chemotherapy with radiotherapy is encouraging but needs to be verified in a randomized trial. For patients with incurable diseases, endoscopic stenting offers effective palliation of dysphagia with minimal morbidity and mortality.