Table 2.

Definitive radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone for metastatic esophageal cancer.

Authors	Study design	Number of cases		Chemotherapy cycles	RT prescription, Gy	OS		Median PFS (m)	Median OS (m)
						1 y (%)	2 y (%)
Li et al. (18)	Prospective	CT	30	Mean 3.6	NA	46.6	26.7	4.7	10.2
		CRT	30	Mean 3.8	Median 54.7 (range:50–61)	73.3	43.3	9.3	18.3
Guttmann et al. (13)	Retrospective	CT	7229	NA	NA	34	12	NA	8.4
		CRT	2409	NA	>50.4	47	19	NA	11.2
Moreno et al. (19)	Retrospective	CT	NA	NA	NA	NA	12.4	NA	NA
		CRT	NA	NA	40–60	NA	18.8	NA	NA
Lyu et al. (20)	Retrospective	CT	86	31.4%>2	NA	43	14	6	11
		CRT	55	36.4%>2	Median 56.4 (range: 50–66)	58	25.5	8	14
Xu et al. (21)	Retrospective	Non-RT	327	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	6
		RT	327	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	10
Present study	Retrospective	CT	61	Median 3	NA	42.8	12.2	4.0	9.3
		CRT	36	Median 3	Median 60 (range: 50–66)	58.0	28.1	9.9	12.9

NA, not applicable.