RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. It is not known whether chemotherapy before surgery is more effective than surgery alone in treating cancer of the esophagus.

PURPOSE: Randomized phase III trial to compare the effectiveness of surgery with or without chemotherapy in treating patients with stage II or stage III cancer of the esophagus.

OBJECTIVES: I. Compare resectability and survival in patients with stage II/III esophageal cancer treated with neoadjuvant cisplatin/fluorouracil vs. surgery alone.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized study. Patients are randomized to one of two groups. The first group receives cisplatin and fluorouracil every 4 weeks for 3 courses followed by esophagectomy and regional lymphadenectomy. The second group undergoes esophagectomy and regional lymphadenectomy alone. All patients are followed for survival.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 240 patients will be entered over 4 years.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Histologically confirmed esophageal squamous cell cancer that is stage T2-3 Nx M0

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: 18 to 75 Performance status: WHO 0-2 Hematopoietic: Not specified Hepatic: Not specified Renal: Not specified Other: No second malignancy within 5 years except: Basal cell skin carcinoma Carcinoma in situ of the cervix

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: No prior chemotherapy or radiotherapy