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Occurrence and Prognostic Value of Perineural Invasion in Esophageal Squamous Cell Cancer: A Retrospective Study

  • Thoracic Oncology
  • Published:
Annals of Surgical Oncology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

A Correction to this article was published on 09 September 2021

This article has been updated

Abstract

Objective

The aim of this study was to explore the occurrence and prognostic value of perineural invasion (PNI) as a classic tumor pathological feature in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

Methods

We retrospectively enrolled 794 ESCC patients who underwent radical esophagectomy at Shanghai Chest Hospital from 2017 to 2018. The incidence, associated factors, and prognosis of PNI were analyzed.

Results

PNI was identified in 15.7% (125/794) of patients. The presence of PNI was significantly associated with depth of invasion (p < 0.001), pN stage (p = 0.008), tumor stage (p < 0.001), and lymphovascular invasion (LVI; p < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that advanced pT stage and LVI were independently associated with the presence of PNI, while multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that PNI was not an independent risk factor for poor overall survival (OS) or recurrence-free survival (RFS) in ESCC patients (OS hazard ratio [HR] 0.688, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.448–1.056, p = 0.087; RFS HR 0.837, 95% CI 0.551–1.273, p = 0.406). In the PNI-positive patient subgroup, adjuvant therapy was associated with better OS and RFS.

Conclusion

PNI correlates with, and may be a concomitant consequence of, LVI and advanced tumor invasion (T3–4) in ESCC patients. Although PNI was not identified as an independent prognostic indicator, our results suggest ESCC patients with PNI should be considered for adjuvant therapy.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Shanghai Chest Hospital Basic Research & Cultivation Project (2019YNJCM13). The authors are grateful to the contribution of Ting Ren and Ruxin Cai, who participated in this study.

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Author notes

  1. Long Zhang, Jinchen Shao, and Zhichao Liu contributed equally to this paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Section of Esophageal Surgery, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Long Zhang MD, Zhichao Liu MD, Jie Pan MD, Bin Li PhD, Yang Yang PhD, Yi He PhD & Zhigang Li PhD

  2. Department of Pathology, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Jinchen Shao PhD & Yuchen Han PhD

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  1. Long Zhang MD
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  2. Jinchen Shao PhD
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Correspondence to Yuchen Han PhD or Zhigang Li PhD.

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The original online version of this article was revised: The formatting of Table 3 was corrected.

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Zhang, L., Shao, J., Liu, Z. et al. Occurrence and Prognostic Value of Perineural Invasion in Esophageal Squamous Cell Cancer: A Retrospective Study. Ann Surg Oncol 29, 586–597 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-021-10665-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-021-10665-z

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