Dr. Lin on Advances in Radiation Therapy for Esophageal Cancer

Steven H. Lin, MD, PhD, associate professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Division of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses advances in radiation therapy for patients with esophageal cancer.

One of the most important treatment modalities for patients with esophageal cancer is radiation, along with surgery and chemotherapy. Surgery is still reserved for early-stage patients, however for locally advanced diseases, preoperative chemoradiation followed by surgery is now the current standard of care in patients who are surgical candidates, explains Lin.

Due to the location of esophageal tumors, around the heart and lung, it’s very important to be able to spare the doses to these organs as much as possible when delivering the radiation, says Lin. The current standard of care for the delivery of radiation is 3D conformal radiation therapy, which can potentially have long term morbidity and mortality in some cases. The advanced technologies try to spare the doses to the surrounding organs, particularly the heart and lung.