Indian Council of Medical research (ICMR) releases consensus document for management of esophageal cancer (EC), prepared as an outcome of ICMR Subcommittee on EC.
EC is the eighth most common cancer in the world. There has been a significant increase in the incidence of esophageal cancer world over, particularly adenocarcinoma. Significant regional variation exists in incidence and pathology of EC. India has an age standardized incidence rate of 6.5 per 100,000 population for males and 4.2 per 100,000 populations for females. This translates into approximately 47,000 new cases each year and 42,000 deaths.
In this report, they mentioned on symptoms, investigations, management and principles of various therapies of EC.
The incidence of EC is rising. But most of patients diagnosed with disease at early stage and receive recommended treatment. As per consensus document, the existing management approaches yield 5-year survival of between 5% and 30%. Hence there is an urgent need for more multimodality management protocols to improve the existing dismal survival for patients with EC.
ICMR has also invited suggestions/comments from experts on management of EC till 15th June.
