Clinical research on capecitabine and nedaplatin combined with chemoradiotherapy in the treatment of the elderly patients with esophageal cancer

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of capecitabine and nedaplatin combined with chemoradiotherapy in the treatment of the elderly patients with esophageal cancer.Methods 87 patients were randomly divided into concurrent chemoradiotherapy group(42 patients)and radio-therapy group(45 patients).The chemoradiotherapy group was treated with concurrent radiothera-py combined with chemotherapy while the radiotherapy group was treated with radiotherapy only. Results The overall efficacy (CR+PR)rates of concurrent chemoradiotherapy group and control group were 92.9% and 77.8,the difference was significant between the two groups(P <0.05). The survival rate of concurrent group after 1 year and 2 years was higher than that in the control group (85.7%,59.5% in 1 year vs 66.7%,37.8% in 2 years respectively).And the difference in toxicity was significant between the two groups with higher toxicity in the concurrent chemoradio-therapy group than in the control group (P <0.05).Conclusion The concurrent chemoradiother-apy in the treatment of the elderly with esophageal cancer can improve the overall efficacy rates and 1,2 year survival rates,but the toxicity was significantly higher.