Research progress of imaging evaluation methods for curative effect of chemoradiotherapy in esophageal cancer

Esophageal cancer is one of the most high incidence of malignant tumors in China.However, the evaluation of chemoradiotherapy curative effect for esophageal cancer is lack of accurate and uniform criteria. In recent years, the imaging evaluation methods for chemoradiotherapy response in esophageal cancer have made some progress. The methods mainly include X-ray barium examination, endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT), and so on. Imaging examination has the advantages of safety, non-invasion and repeatability, and so on, which is a progressing tool for curative effect evaluation. Current status of the application of medical imaging which is used to evaluate esophageal cancer chemoradiotherapy curative effect were reviewed in this paper. Key words: Esophageal neoplasms; Radiotherapy, computer-assisted; Drug therapy, combination; Medical imaging