TRATAMENTUL CHIRURGICAL ŞI GENETIC AL CANCERULUI ESOFAGIAN.

Esophageal cancer is one of the most aggressive types of digestive cancers and due to the usually late diagnosis and to the peculiar anatomical localization, approximately 70% of the patients are in an advanced locoregional stage of the disease or have distance metastases which are unknown at the time of the examination, as they are in general elderly, debilitated and malnourished, often cachectic. In the case of localized esophageal cancer without locoregional extension or metastases, resection surgery remains the best solution. Gene therapy involves a wide variety of types of treatments which use genetic material for the treatment of cancer. This therapy entailed the development of methods to insert certain genes into the genome of the cancer cells by means of various transport systems or the use of other techniques which enable the cancellation of the expression of the genes involved in carcinogenesis or the use of nucleic acid (either DNA or RNA) to influence protein synthesis. Theoretically it is possible to transform either somatic or germinal cells through gene therapy, and gene therapy may be performed both in vitro and in vivo. The medical world shows particular interest towards the introduction into the therapy of specific anti-tumoral agents (antibodies, inhibitors of growth factor receptors, antagonists of the signal transduction factors, vaccines with cells presenting with antigens) associated or not with chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]