Hi doctor , one of my relative has been diagnosed with esophagus cancer (stage 3). She is 59. She is able to eat & very rarely felt pain when swallowing. I am desperate to know whether there is any chance of survival?
Hello. Stage III cancer of esophagus would mean that the cancer has progressed beyond the wall of the esophagus and nearby lymph nodes to surrounding tissues, but other organs are not yet affected. Usually for this stage III, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the main stay of treatment. However, some oncologists also prefer to combine this with curative surgery which follows chemo-radiation therapy, however the risk from such surgeries is quite high at this stage. Chemotherapy along with radiotherapy alone has shown a survival rate of 3-5 years for around 30 percent of the stage III patients. Therefore, the survival would depend on overall factors including the form of treatment. Hope this will answer you in someway. Regards.