How is the effect of radiotherapy for esophageal cancer

How effective is radiotherapy for esophageal cancer?

Esophageal cancer is a common malignant tumor in our lives. The treatment effect of this disease is not particularly ideal, so only by discovering symptoms and treating them as soon as possible can the deterioration of the disease be better controlled. Many people choose surgery when treating esophageal cancer. In fact, not all patients are suitable for esophageal cancer surgery, but surgical treatment also requires radiotherapy and traditional Chinese medicine treatment at the same time.

For early esophageal cancer, surgery is still a basic treatment method. Radiotherapy is mainly used for patients with severe cardiopulmonary diseases and other medical diseases, who are unwilling or unsuitable for surgery, and for locally advanced esophageal cancer, which is limited to lymph node metastatic disease. For example, for high-risk esophageal cancer, patients are afraid of the high risk of surgery, or the patient is not suitable for surgery after a physical examination, then radiotherapy is a good choice. However, radiotherapy also has contraindications, such as esophageal fistula, mediastinitis, abscess, esophageal bleeding, etc. Patients are prohibited from radiotherapy.

For some patients with esophageal cancer, radiotherapy can reduce the recurrence rate and prolong survival time; for patients with extensive metastasis of esophageal cancer, palliative radiotherapy can relieve symptoms such as difficulty eating, improve quality of life, improve prognosis, and prolong patient survival time to a certain extent. Most tumors become smaller after radiotherapy, so patients who are too large to undergo surgery have the opportunity to undergo surgery after radiotherapy. We should also know that surgery is the preferred treatment for patients with early esophageal cancer, but it is also very limited, such as small diseases or potential lesions that are difficult to detect and difficult to clean directly. Radiotherapy can make up for the shortcomings of surgery, is very sensitive to esophageal cancer, and can effectively remove residual lesions, so it is usually performed clinically.