Curing oesophageal cancer: one swallow does not make a summer.

The mainstay of curative treatment for oesophageal cancer is currently surgery with neoadjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy. In most cases, single-agent chemotherapy has been disappointing and allows the development of resistant cancer cells. Success is more likely with combination therapy, although toxicity may be higher. Ifosfamide is generally no different in this respect, but the report of a complete cure in a case treated solely by ifosfamide is discussed. Such subgroup patients may be important in helping to identify factors that predict the biological behaviour of oesophageal cancers, and may aid us in the search for specific markers of treatment response.