ORIGINAL ARTICLE Phase II study of use of a single cycle of induction chemotherapy and concurrent chemoradiotherapy containing capecitabine/ cisplatin followed by surgery for patients with resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: long-term follow-up data Dong Hoe Koo • Seung-Il Park • Yong-Hee Kim • Jong Hoon Kim • Hwoon-Yong Jung • Gin-Hyug Lee • Kee Don Choi • Ho June Song • Ho Young Song • Ji Hoon Shin • Kyung-Ja Cho • Dok-Hyun Yoon • Sung-Bae Kim Received: 25 July 2011 / Accepted: 15 September 2011 / Published online: 4 October 2011 Ó Springer-Verlag 2011 Abstract Purpose This phase II study evaluated the feasibility and efficacy of one cycle of induction chemotherapy, followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) featuring capecitabine/ cisplatin, followed in turn by surgery, in the treatment of patients with resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Methods Between March 2003 and April 2005, 54 patients with stage II or III esophageal cancer were treated with induction chemotherapy (cisplatin 60 mg/m 2 on day 1; capecitabine 1,000 mg/m 2 bid on days 1–14) followed by concurrent radiotherapy (46 Gy in 23 fractions) and che- motherapy (cisplatin 30 mg/m 2 on days 1, 8, 15, and 22; capecitabine 800 mg/m 2 bid 5 days/week). Surgery was performed within 8 weeks of the end of radiotherapy. Results Median age of the patients was 64.5 years (range, 45–74 years). After CRT, 52 patients (96%) showed a clinical response, including 26 (48%) who exhibited a complete response (CR). Surgery was performed on 41 patients (76%), with 20 (37%) achieving pathologic CR and 3 (6%) dying of postoperative pneumonia. At a median follow-up time of 74.2 months (range, 64.3–84.8 months), 16 patients (30%) had experienced tumor recurrence and 36 (67%) had died. Of the 41 patients who underwent esoph- agectomy, 5 (12%) had exclusively locoregional disease and 7 (17%) had distant metastasis, whereas no one had both. The 5-year progression-free and overall survival rates were 30.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 18.0–42.4%) and 37.0% (95% CI, 24.1–50.0%), respectively. Conclusions A trimodal approach, consisting of a single cycle of induction chemotherapy, CRT containing cape- citabine and cisplatin, and surgery, was feasible and effective in patients with resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Keywords Esophageal neoplasm Á Squamous cell carcinoma Á Combined modality therapy Á Phase II clinical trial Á Survival Introduction Although about 30–50% of patients with esophageal cancer have resectable disease, the 5-year survival rate of resected D. H. Koo Á D.-H. Yoon Á S.-B. Kim (&) Department of Oncology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Esophageal Cancer Study Group (ECSG), Asan Medical Center, 86, Asanbyeongwon-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul 138-736, Korea e-mail: sbkim3@amc.seoul.kr S.-I. Park Á Y.-H. Kim Department of Thoracic Surgery, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Esophageal Cancer Study Group (ECSG), Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea J. H. Kim Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Esophageal Cancer Study Group (ECSG), Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea H.-Y. Jung Á G.-H. Lee Á K. D. Choi Á H. J. Song Department of Gastroenterology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Esophageal Cancer Study Group (ECSG), Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea H. Y. Song Á J. H. Shin Department of Radiology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Esophageal Cancer Study Group (ECSG), Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea K.-J. Cho Department of Pathology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Esophageal Cancer Study Group (ECSG), Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea 123 Cancer Chemother Pharmacol (2012) 69:655–663 DOI 10.1007/s00280-011-1750-5