Surgical Treatment of Esophageal Cancer: Preclinical and Clinical Aspects

Masao Fujimaki

Second Department of Surgery, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University

Preclinical research approaches to esophageal cancer using cultured human esophageal cancer cells include 1) hyperthermia experiments, 2) chemotherapy experiments, 3) chemo-hyperthermia experiments, 4) combining TNF with hyperthermia, 5) combining TNF with Δ¹² prostaglandin J2, 6) appearance of fibrinolytic factor and fibrinolysis inhibitor factor, 7) chromosome analysis of esophageal carcinoma cultured cell lines and 8) production of water in oil in water-type lipiodol emulsion. In the clinical treatment of esophageal cancer, I employed esophageal reconstruction prior to esophagectomy as a standard surgical procedure. In this procedure, two separate teams perform the operation in the cervical and abdominal regions simultaneously, and thorough lymph node dissection is performed in each area. From 1985, taking advantage of this surgical procedure, we have employed three-field dissections in carefully selected cases. Since the founding of our institute, we have performed 242 esophagectomies with an operative death rate of 2.5% and 5-uyear-survival rate of 21.7%.

Key words
esophageal cancer, experimental study, culture of human esophageal cancer cell, hyperther-mia, esophageal reconstruction prior to esophagectomy

Reprint requests
Masao Fujimaki Second Department of Surgery, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University
2630 Sugitani, Toyama, 930-01 JAPAN

Accepted
November 9, 1994

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.