Background: Standard of care for unresectable locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT). However, its survival remains limited. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-FU (DCF) demonstrated promising activity with pathological complete response (CR) of 22% for resectable stage II/III ESCC (Hara H et.al, ASCO 2012). This study was performed to assess the efficacy and safety of induction chemotherapy with DCF followed by CRT in patients with unresectable locally advanced ESCC. Methods: Eligibility criteria included clinically T4 and/or M1 lymph node (LYM) ESCC, PS 0-1, and 20-70 years old. Treatment consisted of docetaxel 70 mg/m², cisplatin 70 mg/m² on day 1 and fluorouracil 750 mg/m² on days 1 to 5, repeated every 3 weeks for three cycles, followed by cisplatin 70 mg/m² on days 64 and 92, and fluorouracil 700 mg/m²on days 64 to 67 and 92 to 95 concurrently with radiotherapy (60Gy in 30 fractions, 5 days/week). Results: From August 2009 to November 2011, 33 patients were enrolled.There were 16 pts with T4M0 disease, 13 with nonT4M1 LYM, and 4 with T4M1 LYM.Most grade 3 or 4 toxicities were neutropenia (66%), leukopenia (39%), anorexia (18%), dysphasia (12%), nausea (9%), febrile neutropenia (6%), and hyponatremia (6%) during induction chemotherapy. Most grade 3 or 4 toxicities were leukopenia (27%), neutropenia (20%), dysphasia (17%), anorexia (13%), esophagitis (13%), nausea (10%), and febrile neutropenia (3%) during CRT. No treatment related death was observed. The completion rate of protocol treatment was 88% (29/33). The overall response rate after completion of induction chemotherapy was 61%. Eleven pts (38%) achieved CR after completion of protocol treatment. With a median follow-up period of 14 months, 1y-PFS and 1y-OS are 38.5 and 78.6 %, respectively. Of a total of 33 patients, eighteen patients (55%) received secondary treatment. Conclusions: Induction chemotherapy with DCF followed by CRT in unresectable locally advanced ESCC was well tolerated. Although these data are preliminay, this approach warrants further evaluation. Clinical trial information: UMIN000003370.