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Outcome of Patients with Esophageal Cancer: A Nationwide Analysis

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

Abstract

Background

Esophageal cancer is 1 of the 10 most common cancers and is a particular devastating form of cancer worldwide. More than 90 % patients with esophageal cancer in Taiwan have squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). In the present study, we assessed the factors affecting survival of patients with esophageal cancer using data from Taiwan, a high-incidence area for esophageal SCC.

Methods

We performed a retrospective review of 12,482 patients who were newly diagnosed with esophageal cancer from 1998 to 2007. The data were obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. Study participants were followed-up until the end of 2008.

Results

Of the 12,482 patients, 11,490 (92.1 %) were male with a median age of 60 years, and 992 (7.9 %) were female with a median age of 71 years at the time of diagnosis. The overall 1-, 2-, 5-, and 10-year survival rates after diagnosis were 40.3, 22.9, 12.8, and 7.6 %, respectively. Among parametric models for esophageal cancer prognosis, male sex, no curative treatment (surgery and/or radiotherapy), old age, and low socioeconomic status were significantly associated with shorter survival. Furthermore, curative treatment with surgery improved the survival of esophageal cancer patients more significantly compared with patients who undergo definite radiotherapy.

Conclusions

Our data indicated that age, sex, and curative treatment were significant predictors of lifetime survival in patients with esophageal cancer. The overall survival rates of patients with esophageal cancer are relatively low, while survival of patients who undergo surgery is improved significantly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan

    Miao-Fen Chen MD, PhD, Chia-Hsuan Lai MD & Wen-Cheng Chen MD

  2. Chang Gung University, College of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    Miao-Fen Chen MD, PhD & Wen-Cheng Chen MD

  3. Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan

    Yao-Hsu Yang MD, MPH

  4. Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yao-Hsu Yang MD, MPH & Pau-Chung Chen MD, PhD

  5. Department of Public Health, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, Taipei, Taiwan

    Pau-Chung Chen MD, PhD

  6. Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan

    Pau-Chung Chen MD, PhD

Authors
  1. Miao-Fen Chen MD, PhD
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  2. Yao-Hsu Yang MD, MPH
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  3. Chia-Hsuan Lai MD
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  5. Wen-Cheng Chen MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wen-Cheng Chen MD.

Additional information

Miao-Fen Chen and Yao-Hsu Yang contributed equally to this work.

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Chen, MF., Yang, YH., Lai, CH. et al. Outcome of Patients with Esophageal Cancer: A Nationwide Analysis. Ann Surg Oncol 20, 3023–3030 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-013-2935-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-013-2935-4

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