ASO Author Reflections: Establishment of an Ideal Criterion for Evaluating the Therapeutic Effect on Esophageal Cancer

Abstract

The Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) is useful for evaluating the therapeutic effect on various malignant tumors. However, it cannot be used for primary esophageal cancer lesions because the precise size of the tumor in the luminal organ cannot be measured by computed tomography (CT). Several dynamic contrastenhanced magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography parameters have been suggested as strong candidates for estimating the therapeutic effect of chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy on esophageal cancer. However, these methods are not part of standard care, and an appropriate strategy for determining the therapeutic effect of a drug on esophageal cancer has not been established. The ideal criterion must be easily measured with high objectivity and must allow both the pathologic tumor regression grade (TRG) and patient prognosis to be determined. Precisely determining the effect of neoadjuvant treatment using such a criterion is clinically important because it can contribute to determining the subsequent treatment strategy. Thus, novel measures are required. PRESENT