Abstract: Objective To evaluate the effects of actovegin in prevention and treatment of acute radiation esophagitis. Methods 62 patients with esophageal cancer, lung cancer or thymoma were randomly placed into two groups: the experimental group (n=32) and the control group(n=30). Patients in the experimental group concurrently received radio-chemotherapy and actovegin and patients in the control group only received radio-chemotherapy. Various evaluations on the acute esophagitis, such as the radiation therapy oncology group criteria and Kuwahta′s criteria, were used to analyze the clinical characteristics, the time of appearance, the time of suffering, endoscopic results of esophagus, and pathological changes of the mucous membrane. ResultsThe typical symptoms included odynophagia or dysphagia. Based on the RTOG criteria, grade 2 or even worse acute esophagitis was found in 15.6% in the experimental group and 56.6% in the control group(P=0.0007).The mean time of appearance was（16.2±2.2）days in the experimental group and（10.7±2.1）days in the control group and the mean time of suffering was（12.0±2.2） days and（25.6±8.4）days respectively. Grade 2 or even worse esophagitis was found in 10% in the experimental group and 66.6% in the control group based on the Kuwahta′s endoscopic criteria. Conclusions Actovegin can delay the occurrence of acute esophagitis, decreases the degree of esophagitis and the time of suffering and so ensures the fulfillment of treatment.

Key words: Radiation esophagitis, Actovegin, Thoracic neoplasm