Radiotherapy for endobronchially invading recurrence of esophageal cancer after resective surgery

: Sixty-eight patients with endobronchially invading recurrence of esophageal cancer after resective surgery were treated with radiotherapy from 1966 to 1988. The mean interval between resective surgery and diagnosis of recurrence was 11.1 months, that was significantly shortened in a3 group. The dose of radiation for recurrence ranged from 2 to 70.3 Gy, with a mean dose of 42.6 Gy. The mean survival time after treatment of recurrence was 4.9 months. The dose of radiation was found to have a positive correlation with survival time. The cause of death was bleeding in 20 patients, and respiratory failure in 36. High dose of radiation was thought to induce high incidence of bleeding. The results indicated that external beam radiotherapy with conventional fractionation was not so much effective for the recurrence.