Randomized Study of Pre-Operative Radio-Chemotherapy Versus Surgery Alone in Thoracic Esophageal Cancer Deemed to be Resectable

OBJECTIVES:

• Compare the overall survival of patients with resectable thoracic esophageal cancer treated with neoadjuvant radio-chemotherapy and surgery versus surgery alone.
• Compare the disease-free survival of patients treated with these regimens.
• Compare the surgical mortality and morbidity of patients treated with these regimens.
• Compare the resectability of patients treated with these regimens.
• Determine the validation of new prognostic factors for survival of these patients and/or the efficacy of this neoadjuvant treatment.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, open-label, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to histology (epidermoid carcinoma vs adenocarcinoma vs undifferentiated carcinoma), stage (I vs IIA vs IIB), tumor location (above the carina vs below the carina), and participating center. Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

• Arm I: Patients undergo radiotherapy daily 5 days a week for 5 weeks. Patients receive fluorouracil IV continuously on days 1-4 and 29-32 and cisplatin IV on days 1 or 2 and 29 or 30 (or a lower dose on days 1-5 and 29-33). Within 4-8 weeks after completion of radio-chemotherapy, patients undergo surgical resection.
• Arm II: Patients undergo surgical resection. Patients are followed every 4 months for 2 years, every 6 months for 3 years, and then annually thereafter.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 380 patients (190 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study within 3 years.