OncoTargets and Therapy (Sep 2016)

Long-term results of definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy using S-1 in the treatment of geriatric patients with esophageal cancer

  • Lv S,
  • Fang M,
  • Yang J,
  • Zhan W,
  • Jia Y,
  • Xu H,
  • Song T

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 9
pp. 5389 – 5397

Abstract

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Shiliang Lv, Min Fang, Jia Yang, Wenming Zhan, Yongshi Jia, Hong’en Xu, Tao Song Department of Radiotherapy, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the efficiency and safety of using S-1 as monotherapy and maintenance therapy combined with definitive concurrent radiotherapy for elderly patients with esophageal cancer.Patients and methods: From January 2009 to December 2010, 68 elderly patients were included. Radiotherapy was delivered with a daily fraction of 1.8–2.0 Gy to a total radiation dose of 54.0–60.0 Gy. Preplanned concurrent S-1 (80 mg/m2/d) was given on days 1–14, every 3 weeks. After concurrent chemoradiotherapy, maintenance S-1 was repeated up to four cycles.Results: The median age of the enrolled patients was 76 years (range: 70–88 years), and the clinical stages were stage I (two patients), stage II (24 patients), stage III (28 patients), and stage IV (14 patients). A total of 51 (75.0%) patients finished treatment on schedule, with a median of five cycles of S-1, in which 35 (51.5%) patients achieved complete response. The median follow-up time was 42.7 months, and the median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) times were 25.7 months and 21.5 months, respectively. The 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year OS and PFS rates were 70.6%, 41.8%, and 25.9% and 68.1%, 32.9%, and 15.9%, respectively. Grade ≥3 neutropenia and leukopenia were found in 14 patients and 13 patients, respectively. The most common nonhematologic toxicity was esophagitis including six patients and one patient with grades 3 and 4, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that cycles of S-1 and complete response were strong factors for OS and PFS.Conclusion: For geriatric patients with esophageal cancer, S-1 as monotherapy and maintenance chemotherapy in combination with definitive concurrent radiation therapy yielded satisfactory survival outcomes with tolerable toxicities. More studies are highly warranted to further clarify this issue. Keywords: esophageal cancer, geriatric, chemoradiotherapy, S-1, survival

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