 1.2 Capecitabine for esophageal cancer Capecitabine is a novel, orally administered fluoropyrimidine carbamate that is absorbed readily by the gastrointestinal tract and is metabolized by the liver, where it is converted initially to 5 -deoxy-5-fluorocytidine 5 -DFCR and subsequently, to 5 -deoxy-5-fluorouridine 5 -DFUR. Designed to mimic continuous intravenous CIV 5-FU, oral capecitabine predominantly concentrates in tumor tissue . Capecitabine currently is approved as a single agent for the adjuvant treatment of stage III colon cancer, as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer, and for metastatic breast cancer both as a single agent for patients and in combination with docetaxel. Whether oral fluoropyrimidines may be appropriately substituted, therefore making the therapy less burdensome to the patient and reducing the need for infusion catheters, is not fully investigated In patients with advanced esophagogastric cancer, capecitabine combinations have generally shown good antitumor activity and highlight the potential of capecitabine as a replacement of infusional 5-FU . Capecitabine has been investigated in combination with cisplatin and docetaxel in phase II trials in patients with advanced esophageal cancer with observed response rates of 47.1 and 46, respectively . In a recent phase III trial comparing the efficacy of capecitabinecisplatin XP versus FP in advanced gastric cancer, XP was not inferior to FP, in terms of progression-free survival PFS, overall survival OS, and response rate RR . In our experience, the combination of capecitabine and cisplatin for esophageal cancer showed encouraging response rate 59 with tolerable toxicities and convenience. 