Abstract

Neoadjuvant chemotherpay of esophageal cancers is recently considered to be beneficial to downstaging of tumors. This study was aimed ta describe morphologic alterations and expression of P-glycoprotein in esophageal cancers after chemotherapy and discuse their clinical sig- nificances. Eleven cases of esophageal cancers which were surgicelly resected l-5 cycles of chemotherapy with C-DDP/VP-16/5-FU(PEF)or C-DDP/5-FU(FP) were reviewed. On microscopic examination, all of ll cases(100%) revealed no major pathologic alterations. Only five cases(45%) showed non-specific partial pathologic responses, histologically observing foreign body reaction, calcification, necrosis, desmoplasia, vascular dilatation, and nuclear anaplasia. The changes were also observed in metastatic tumors in regional lymph nodes. The presence of non-specific pathologic responses and downstaging of tumors did not correlate each other. Immunohistochemically, all of the cases were negative for P-glycoprotein. Our data suggest that PEF or FP neoadjuvant chemotherpay for esophageal cancers is ineffecitive.

• Keywords: Esophageai cancer, chemotherapy, Pathologic response