作者用可靠的无偏性的综合(Meta)分析方法评价食管癌术前放疗是否有肯定疗效。1993年12月前完成的可切除的食管癌各地5个组共1147例,手术前随机分为用或不用放射治疗。通过计算机医学文献分析和检索系统用最优化的检索策略鉴定各组试验数据。5个组均详细记录性别、出生日或年龄、肿瘤部位、临床分期、组织学检查、治疗程序、手术切除范围、定期观察、生存质量、末次随访或死亡 The authors used a reliable, unbiased, meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of preoperative radiotherapy for esophageal cancer. A total of 1147 cases of resectable esophageal cancer in 5 groups were completed before December 1993, and they were randomly divided into two groups with or without radiation before surgery. Through the computerized medical literature analysis and retrieval system, each group of test data was identified using the optimized search strategy. All five groups recorded sex, birth date or age, tumor site, clinical stage, histological examination, treatment procedure, scope of surgical resection, regular observation, quality of life, last follow-up, or death.