Study to determine adequate margins in radiotherapy planning for esophageal carcinoma by detailing patterns of recurrence after definitive chemoradiotherapy.

Purpose: To ascertain the adequacy of radiotherapy (RT) margins by studying the relapse patterns after definitive chemoradiotherapy for carcinoma of the esophagus.

Methods And Materials: We performed a retrospective study assessing the first site of disease relapse after definitive chemoradiotherapy that included four 3-weekly cycles of cisplatin and continuous infusion 5-fluorouracil, with conformal RT (50 Gy in 25 fractions) concurrent with Cycles 3 and 4. The RT planning target volume was the endoscopic ultrasonography/computed tomography-defined gross tumor volume with 1.