Background and purpose:Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) enables the delivery of higher radiation dose to the primary tumor target, while sparing the organs and tissues at risk (OARs). Chemotherapy is an effective means to prevent distant metastasis. The purpose of this study was to observe clinical effect of concurrent intensity-modulated radiation therapy and chemotherapy for advanced esophageal carcinoma. Methods: A total number of 62 cases of advanced esophageal carcinoma were divided into two groups. There were 32 cases in concurrent chemoradiotherapy group, and 30 cases were in radiotherapy alone group. The patients in two groups were both used IMRT radiotherapy, while the patients of concurrent chemoradiotherapy group were plused adjuvant chemotherapy. The chemotherapy regimen was TP. Twenty-eight days was a treatment cycle, 2 treatment cycles were lasted during chemoradiotherapy.After that, recent curative effect and toxicside reaction were compared between two groups. Results: The total relief rate (CR+PR) in concurrent chemoradiotherapy group was 93.8%. The total relief rate in radiotherapy alone group was 76.7%. There were signiifcant differences between the two groups (P<0.05). One-year local response rate(84.4%) and 2-year local response rate (59.4%) in concurrent chemoradiotherapy group were both higher than those (70.0%, 36.7%) in radiotherapy alone group (P<0.05), while the survival rate was similar between the two groups (P>0.05). Toxicside reaction in concurrent chemoradiotherapy group, including leucocytes decrease, radioactive esophagitis andⅢ,Ⅳtoxicity, were higher than those in radiotherapy alone group (P<0.05). Conclusion:After treating advanced esophageal carcinoma with concurrent intensity-modulated radiation therapy and chemotherapy, the recent curative effect and the local response were ifne, while toxicity was more serious.