Application scope of intra-arterial chemotherapy for esophageal cancer

Since Japanese scholar Tanohata et al. first started to treat esophageal cancer by infusing chemotherapy drugs through the esophageal artery in 1975, the treatment has been continuously expanded with its characteristics of minimally invasive, mild adverse reactions, and significant short-term efficacy. With the emergence of advanced interventional equipment and instruments and the in-depth study of the blood supply characteristics of esophageal cancer, arterial infusion chemotherapy for esophageal cancer has become one of the main interventional anti-tumor methods.

(1) Indications

1. Patients who have lost the chance of radical surgical resection or are unwilling to accept surgical treatment. 2. Patients who have undergone arterial infusion chemotherapy before surgery to reduce the difficulty of surgery and the scope of surgical resection. 3. Patients who have undergone arterial infusion chemotherapy to reduce the tumor, reduce the clinical stage, create surgical opportunities or obtain stage II surgical resection opportunities. 4. Radiotherapy combined with local chemotherapy can have a synergistic and radiosensitizing effect. 5. Local recurrence of esophageal cancer after surgery or radiotherapy, and residual lesions after surgery.

(2) Contraindications

Generally, there are no absolute contraindications, but the following can be considered relative contraindications: 1. Elderly patients, aged over 70 years old, in poor general condition. 2. Patients with esophageal bleeding or perforation. 3. Patients with infection and fever. 4. Patients with major organ failure. 5. Patients with severe bleeding tendency.