Abstract: To explore the effects, toxicity and safety of concurrent chemoradiotherapy for esophageal cancer, which remains controversial, especially for advanced patients. Methods A total of 75 patients with esophageal cancer having T4 tumor or N1 regional lymph node invasion or distant lymph node metastasis(M1a) were enrolled in this study. FT207 800mg/d and CDDP 20mg/d were administered on days 1-5 and 22-26. Fractionated radiotherapy was performed from day 1 and a total dose of 60-70Gy was delivered at the rate of 2Gy per fraction. A t-test was used to compare the size of lesions before and after therapies. The overall survival time was determined by the KaplanMeier method. Results The overall response rate was 64% and the complete response rate was 14.7%. The size of lesions that could be determined in two directions was (10.53±2.87)cm² before therapies and (4.69±1.25)cm² after therapies　(P=0.012). The size of lesions that could be measured only in one direction was (7.86±2.01)cm before therapies and (3.83±1.08)cm after therapies (P=0.007). The toxicity of the most common grade 3 was endoesophagitis(8%) and nausea and vomiting (21.3%) and of grade 4 was not observed. The 2-year survival rate was 30.7%. Conclusion Based on the overall response rate and the toxicity of treatments, the results obtained from the present trial are promising. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy is currently suitable for patients with advanced esophageal cancer.

Key words: Esophageal neoplasms, Radiotherapy, Drug therapy