Treatment For Esophageal Cancer

The treatment you receive if you have esophageal cancer is at the stage of the disease and your condition. You often get a combination of multiple treatments.

Curative treatment of esophageal cancer
If you have esophageal cancer and there are no metastases elsewhere in the body, then it may be that you receive treatment that has healing as a goal. This is called a curative treatment. Usually, this treatment consists of a chemoradiation, followed by an esophageal operation.

Very often during the operation, things come to light, which was not yet known. This allows the treatment plan to change.

Palliative treatment of esophageal cancer
Curing is not always the goal of treatment. Sometimes this is no longer possible, for example, if the esophageal cancer is metastasized further in the body. You will then receive a treatment to reduce the symptoms as much as possible and to stop the disease. This is called a palliative treatment.

Usually, this treatment consists of irradiation of the esophageal tumor or metastases and/or chemotherapy. You can also get a stent in your esophagus so that food and drink can pass through the esophagus or get targeted therapy.

Research into new treatments
Sometimes you are eligible for treatment in a research context. Often, new treatments or a new combination of treatments are examined in these studies. It is investigated whether this treatment is better than the standard treatment or, for example, gives fewer side effects.



Treatment plan
Your doctor will make a treatment plan for you together with a number of other specialists. They use national guidelines for this.

To be able to provide the best possible treatment, it is important to know:

• what stage and characteristics the tumor has
• whether there is inherited tax
• whether there are metastases

But your personal situation also plays a role. A treatment plan is therefore customization. Therefore, let yourself be well informed about the treatment options so that you can make an informed decision together with your treatment team.

Multidisciplinary consultation
Your doctor discusses your history with a team of specialist doctors and nurses. This is called a multidisciplinary consultation (MDO). In many hospitals in the Netherlands, doctors also involve specialists from other hospitals in the multidisciplinary consultation.

Discuss treatment proposal
After the multidisciplinary consultation, the doctor will discuss a treatment proposal with you. During this meeting, you can also discuss your wishes and expectations. In some situations, your doctor will present you with a choice. There are advantages and disadvantages to every decision. Discuss it with your doctor. With your questions, you can also contact a (specialized) nurse.