Combined results from three phase II trials of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in operable adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus

Adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus is a systemic disease at presentation in the majority of patients. This article analyses the impact of preoperative chemotherapy on a cohort of 68 patients. From 1990 to 1996, 68 patients with potentially operable adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus were entered into three sequential Phase II trials of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin/mitomycin C/ifosfamide, cisplatin/5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and mitomycin C/cisplatin/5-FU. Twenty-four (35%) patients had a radiological (4 complete; 20 partial) response to chemotherapy, and 52 (76%) went on to have the primary tumour resected. There was only one pathological complete responder. The overall median survival was 13 months (95% confidence interval (CI) 9-16). Survival for the 28 N-0 patients was 34 months (95% CI 14-60). The pattern of failure for resected patients was predominantly systemic (16/17). These results indicate that neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery for adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus achieves excellent local control. The dominance, however, of distant recurrence after surgery underlines the fact that, in the majority of patients, the only hope of improving results in the future is to develop better systemic therapies.