Esophagus Cancer, Stage and Survival

See the stage and stage images here. The cure rate for esophagus cancer is poor with a 5 year survival rate of only 13%. The national data report:  27% for local stage disease, 13% for regional and 2% for distant stage (see SEER Data  here and survival curve here.) Longer cancers do worse than short ones (go here)

Other reported survival stats: Stage I (60%) Stage II (31%) Stage III (20%) Stage IV (4%) .
Stage 0 (100%) Stage I (80%) Stage IIA  (40%) Stage IIB (30%) Stage III (15%) Stage 0 (0%)

Survival correlates with disease stage. Five-year survival rates are 34 to 62 percent for patients treated for stage I and IIA tumors and 17 to 25 percent for those with involvement of regional nodes (stage IIB and III). According to data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program, the five-year survival for all patients with esophageal cancer improved modestly over the last 30 years, from 5 percent in the years 1975 to 1977, to 17 percent during the period 1996 to 2004

The results with radiation alone are poor but combination chemotherapy-radiation is distinctly better (see below.)


Stage Distribution from the ACS
Race Local Regional Distant
White 23% 24% 26%
Black 28% 23% 28%

Survival by Stage (National Data from ACS)
Race All Local Regional Distant
White 12% 26% 11% 2%
Black 8% 13% 7% 2%

Survival and Stage Distribution from the NCDB
Stage Incidence Survival (NCDB) Survival (AJCC)
I 16% 42% 62%
II or IIa 27% 29% 41%
IIb     25%
III 25% 15% 18%
IV 29% 3% 5%
Treatment Median Survival 2 Year Survival 5 Year Survival
Radiation 9 months 10 - 12%  0 - 7%
Chemo-Radiation 12.5 - 20 months 27 - 72% 17 - 27% (55%)

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