Objective　To assess the effectiveness and safety of preoperation radiotherapy combined with surgery for esophageal cancer.　Methods　Relevant randomized controlled trails (RCT) were retrieved from PubMed (1966-2009)

EMBASE (1974-2009)

Cochrane Library (Issue 4

2009)

CNKI (1994-2009)

CBM (1978-2009)

VIP(1989-2009) and WanFang (1997-2009). Two researchers assessed the quality of included trials and extracted data independently. Revman 5.0 software was used for meta-analysis.　Results　Ten RCTs of 2706 patients were involved in this Meta-analysis. The results show:preoperative radiotherapy combined with surgery compared with surgery alone: there were differences of 1 year overall survival rate [RR=1.17

95%CI 1.07-1.28

P=0.000 4]

5 year overall survival rates [RR=1.18

95%CI 1.01-1.37

P=0.03]

surgical resection rate[RR=1.08

95%CI 1.05-1.11

P0.01]

stumppositive rate of residual cancer[RR=0.18

95%CI 0.08-0.41

P0.01] and lymph node metastasis rate[RR=0.60

95%CI 0.43-0.84

P=0.003] between the two groups. However

there was no difference of 3 years overall survival rates [RR=1.54

95%CI 0.97-2.45

P=0.07] and the incidence of postoperative anastomotic leakage[RR=0.74

95%CI 0.33-1.66

P=0.47].　Conclusion　Compared with surgery alone

preoperative radiotherapy combined with surgery in patients with esophageal cancer can improve the 1-year overall survival

5-year overall survival rates and surgical resection rate

reducing stump positive rate of residual cancer and lymph node metastasis rate. However

There was no significant difference in 3-year overall survival rates and the incidence of postoperative anastomotic leakage. Therefore

we looking forward to high-quality RCTs to reveal the significance of the combined treatment of preoperation radiotherapy combined with surgery.