Literature Search Strategy
The MEDLINE (1966 through November [week 3] 2005), CANCERLIT (1975 through July 2002), and the Cochrane Library (through Issue 3, 2005) databases were searched for relevant information using the following terms. The term "esophageal neoplasm" (Medical subject heading [MeSH]) was combined with "phototherapy" (MeSH), "photochemotherapy" (MeSH), "photodynamic therapy (MeSH), "hematoporphyrin" (MeSH), and "dihematoporphyrin" (MeSH). These MeSH terms were then combined with following text words, "esophageal cancer," "esophageal carcinoma," "photofrin", "porfirmer sodium", "porphyrin", "esophageal malignancy", and "esophageal malignancy". Search terms describing study designs were not used.
Abstracts published in the 2000-2005 proceedings of the annual meetings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), including abstracts from the Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposiums, were systematically searched for evidence relevant to this advice document. Additionally, the U.S. National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) (http://www.guideline.gov/), the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) InfoBase of clinical practice guidelines (http://mdm.ca/cpgsnew/cpgs/index.asp), and the National Cancer Institute's (NCI®) database of clinical trials (http://www.nci.nih.gov/search/clinicaltrials/) were searched for relevant information (see Appendix 1 in the original guideline document for search terms used). Search terms used for the ASCO abstracts, NGC database, and the CMA InfoBase included "photodynamic," "PDT," "esophagus," "esophageal," and "photofrin." Search terms used in the NCI® search included "esophageal cancer," "treatment," "phototherapy," "phase II," and "phase III."
Inclusion Criteria
Articles were selected for inclusion in the systematic review of the evidence if they were fully published English-language reports of:
- Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing porfimer sodium with any other therapy in the palliative treatment of esophageal cancer
- Phase II trials comparing porfimer sodium with any other therapy in the palliative treatment of esophageal cancer
Exclusion Criteria
- Studies published in languages other than English
- Studies enrolling less than 10 patients.
- Studies examining the use of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in Barrett's esophagus
- Letters and editorials
- Non-human studies