Vertebral body irradiation during chemoradiation therapy for esophageal cancer contributes to acute bone marrow toxicity

Esophageal cancer is a leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality, contributing to 442,000 new cases and 440,000 deaths globally in 2013 (1). In the United States, although there were 17,000 reported new cases of esophageal cancer in 2016, the 5-year overall survival (OS) based on national data remains low at 18% (2). Surgery has traditionally been the mainstay for localized esophageal cancer, but it alone results in high locoregional failure rates ranging from 30–60% (3-6)