初诊食管癌病人中,约50～60％因肿瘤广泛浸润、或远处转移而难以治愈。其余被认为有手术切除希望者,约20％在开胸后发现不能切除,而在能切除的病例中,竞有70—75％的患者生存不超过5年。贲门癌的手术切除率及预后比食管癌更差。因此,在所有的食管癌和贲门癌的病例中有希望生存5年以上者仅为10％左右。为了进一步改善晚期病人的症状,解决其进食问题及延长寿命,医学界作了许多尝试。 About 50 to 60% of patients with newly diagnosed esophageal cancer are refractory to extensive invasion or distant metastasis. About 20% of the remaining patients who were considered candidates for surgical resection were found to be unresectable after thoracotomy. In resectable cases, 70-75% of patients who survived survived for no more than 5 years. The surgical resection rate and prognosis of cardiac cancer are worse than that of esophageal cancer. Therefore, in all cases of esophageal and cardiac cancers, there are only about 10% of those who wish to survive for more than 5 years. In order to further improve the symptoms of late-stage patients, solve their eating problems and prolong their lives, the medical community has made many attempts.