Interventions
esophageal and cardia cancers
COMPLICATIONS
This trial was designed to determine the effectiveness of oral famotidine on reducing the acute hematological complications of radiotherapy among patients with esophageal and cardia cancers. All patients received a fixed therapeutic dose of external beam radiation therapy. 15MV high-energy photon from linear accelerator (Siemens Primus, Siemens Medical Systems, Concord, CA, USA) was used for treatment. Patients were treated with 3 fields per day with a dose rate of 180 cGy/day, five days/week. Planning target volume (PTV) was 5 mm from clinical target volume (CTV). Dose-volume histogram (DVH) was considered mean dose of 30 Gy and mean dose of 15 Gy for liver and spleen, respectively. Moreover, patients received the chemotherapy regimen of paclitaxel 80 mg/m