Trial Using 125I Embedded Stent in Patients With Advanced Esophageal Cancer

More than half of patients with esophageal cancer are inoperable because of late stage cancer or metastasis and they have to undergo palliative treatments. Dysphagia is the major symptom of patients with inoperable esophageal cancer. To relieve the dysphagia and improve the quality of life of such patients, stent placement has been widely accepted to be an option for palliation of the symptoms. However, recurrence of the neoplastic stricture remains a challenge after stent placement. To combine the advantages of the immediate relief of the esophageal dysphagia with the stent placement and radiation therapy with brachytherapy, a novel esophageal stent loaded with 125I seeds has been developed in the authors' institute. The preliminary clinical trial in a single institute has demonstrated better results than the conventional stent. This prospective multiple center trial is designed to further demonstrate the clinical outcomes with this irradiation, stent in patients compared to those using a conventional covered stent.