Esophageal Cancer

Carbon ion radiotherapy for esophageal cancer

Indications

Carbon ion radiotherapy is performed for esophageal cancer in the following cases.

	Disease	Indication
1	Esophageal cancer	Clinical stage I primary esophageal cancer

1. Clinical stage I primary esophageal cancer

The targeted condition is esophageal cancer extending up to the submucosa without metastasis to the lymph nodes and other organs (regardless of the histological type).
Treatment consists of carbon ion radiotherapy alone without concomitant chemotherapy. The treatment is administered 12 times over approximately 3 weeks.

Treatment record in QST hospital

	Disease	Period	Number of Patients
1	Clinical stage I primary esophageal cancer	Through 2018	38

1. Clinical stage I primary esophageal cancer

The results of an analysis of 16 patients with T1bN0 (stage I) esophageal cancer treated through 2012 are shown.^*1,*2 Adverse reactions seen early were Grade 3 esophagitis in 2 patients and Grade 3 hematotoxicity in 2 patients. However, there were no cardiorespiratory complications of the types seen with normal chemoradiotherapy. Moreover, none of the patients analyzed had late-onset reactions of Grade 3 or higher. Although local recurrence was seen in 4 of the 16 patients, focal salvage therapy was safely administered. The overall 3- and 4-year survival rates were 100% and 83%, respectively. Because chemotherapy is not used with carbon ion radiotherapy at this hospital, we consider it a useful treatment option for patients who cannot tolerate other treatments such as chemotherapy or surgery (e.g., elderly individuals and those with a history of systemic illness).

*1 Yasuda S. Chapter 23 Esophageal Cancer. In: Tsujii H, et al., eds. Carbon-Ion Radiotherapy. Principle, Practice, and Treatment Planning. Springer; 2014.
*2 Tsujii H, et al., eds. Carbon-Ion Radiotherapy. Principle, Practice, and Treatment Planning. Springer; 2014.