Aventis announced that its anticancer drug Taxotere has been approved for esophageal cancer in Japan. Taxotere is currently approved in Japan for treating breast cancer, non-small-cell lung cancer, gastric cancer, ovarian cancer, and head/neck cancer and the latest approval further expands the indications for Taxotere.

Esophageal cancer has a very poor prognosis. A population survey of the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare population in 2001 reported that approximately 3.6 per cent or 10677, of the total number of people who died of cancers, died of esophageal cancer, 9026 men and 1651 women.

The first choice for treatment of esophageal cancer is surgery if the tumour is resectable. Chemotherapy is used in unresectable cases such as advanced cancer, recurrent cases, and as combination therapy before and after surgery. A combination of drug and radiotherapy has recently attracted attention as a new option in the treatment of esophageal cancer. However, it is unclear whether chemotherapy contributes to a better prognosis for esophageal cancer and there are only a small number of drugs with proven efficacy against the condition. A late phase II study of Taxotere alone showed that it reduced advanced and recurrent esophageal tumours by 20.4 per cent according to the RECIST (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours) criteria. This tumour-reducing effect is comparable to those of existing anticancer drugs, and because the drug has a different mechanism of action, it holds considerable promise as a new treatment option. In the future, a combination of Taxotere with other anticancer drugs or radiation therapy might further improve treatment results.

RECIST objectively rates the therapeutic effects of anticancer drugs on solid tumours. The criteria were formulated to address the deficiencies of the previous therapeutic effect evaluation criteria.