Salvage Surgery after CRT for Advanced Esophageal Cancer Resulting in a Pathological Complete Response and More Than Five Years' Survival

A 62-year-old woman visited our hospital because of dysphagia. She was diagnosed with upper-middle esophageal type 4 cancer, which was 9 cm in length, according to the results of endoscopy. Squamous cell carcinoma was demonstrated using endoscopic biopsy. A CT scan revealed that the tumor had directly invaded into the trachea(cT4). Chemoradiotherapy(CRT) (5-FU and CDDP with 50 Gy of radiation)was administered. Although CT after CRT resulted in shrinkage of the tumor and no further tracheal invasion, esophageal stenosis remained. Therefore, salvage surgery(subtotal esophagectomy with 3-field lymph node dissection)was performed. Pathologically, no carcinoma cells were found in the resected specimen and a com- plete response(grade 3)was diagnosed. The patient received adjuvant chemotherapy(tegafur/uracil at 300mg/day per os) for 1 year. The patient is alive with no relapse of carcinoma more than 5 years after the first treatment.