In the United States, esophageal cancer is an uncommon but aggressive malignancy. Prior research has focused on the incorporation of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in both the pre- and postoperative setting. Both squamous cell and adenocarcinoma histologies have been treated in trials, with adenocarcinoma now the predominant histology seen in the United States. Although preoperative chemotherapy improves survival compared with surgery alone, the addition of concurrent radiotherapy to preoperative chemotherapy improves rates of curative resection, reduces local tumor recurrence, and achieves a significant rate of pathologic complete response. Combined preoperative chemoradiotherapy is the preferred preoperative strategy for locally advanced esophageal cancers in the United States. Definitive chemoradiotherapy alone appears to be equivalent in terms of overall survival compared with chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery in squamous cancers, although the addition of surgery after chemoradiotherapy may afford superior local control of disease. Postoperatively, survival is improved with postoperative chemotherapy and radiotherapy in adenocarcinoma of the gastroesophageal junction, if none has been delivered preoperatively. Ongoing research involves evaluating regimens with newer chemotherapeutic drugs, such as paclitaxel or irinotecan, as well as the incorporation of targeted molecular therapies.
