Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. May 24, 2025; 16(5): 101378
Published online May 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i5.101378
Toxicity of dose-escalated, hypofractionated helical tomotherapy for inoperable thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Shu-Min Zhang, Jing Sun, Xiang-Ou Pan, Wen-Chao Zhu, Yong-Kang Zhou
Shu-Min Zhang, Jing Sun, Xiang-Ou Pan, Wen-Chao Zhu, Yong-Kang Zhou, Department of Radiation Oncology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Author contributions: Zhang SM and Sun J were responsible for the design of the study, drafted the manuscript, and critically revised the manuscript; Zhang SM, Sun J, and Pan XO analyzed and interpreted the patient data regarding the chemotherapy regimens; Zhou YK analyzed and interpreted the patient data regarding the radiation physics and dosages; Zhu WC was responsible for data auditing and collection and patient follow-up; and all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Zhongshan Hospital, in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (No. 2011-235).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: sharing statement: For legitimate requests, the author can provide the relevant data.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Shu-Min Zhang, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, No. 180 Fenglin Road, Shanghai 200032, China. zhang.shumin@zs-hospital.sh.cn
Received: September 12, 2024
Revised: February 19, 2025
Accepted: March 31, 2025
Published online: May 24, 2025
Processing time: 248 Days and 17.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Hypofractionated radiotherapy is becoming more popular. However, it is unknown whether it is an optimal choice for esophageal tumors. In addition, the appropriate dose per fraction is unclear. At present, there is no systematic report on these issues. In this study, 47 patients with thoracic esophageal carcinoma treated with radiotherapy at different prescribed doses and doses per fraction were enrolled retrospectively. Toxicity and adverse events were evaluated to determine the acute and long-term treatment effects. It was shown that esophageal toxicity can be tolerated below a prescribed dose of 60 Gy of radiation and less than 2.3 Gy per fraction.