Adding surgery to chemoradiotherapy improves local tumor control but does not increase survival of patients with locally advanced esophageal SCC. Tumor response to induction chemotherapy identifies a favorable prognostic group within these high-risk patients, regardless of the treatment group.

This study revealed that physicians' survival estimates were unreliable, especially in the case of patients near death. Self-reported emotional distress and objective PFs may improve the accuracy of survival estimates.

Combination of neoadjuvant chemo-/radiotherapy results in significantly higher rates of complete remission than neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone. The significance for tumor-free and overall survival has to be evaluated.