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The Impact of Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy on Perioperative Outcomes, Tumor Pathology, and Survival in Clinical Stage II and III Esophageal Cancer

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

Abstract

Background

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCR) on perioperative outcomes, tumor pathology, and survival following surgical resection of clinical stage II and III esophageal cancer.

Methods

Patients undergoing esophagectomy for clinical stage II and III cancer were divided into two groups: those who received NCR and those who underwent primary surgery (1991–2011).

Results

A total of 173 (50.9 %) of 340 stage II/III patients received NCR, 108 (31.8 %) patients underwent primary surgery, and 59 (17.4 %) underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery. Patients who received NCR were younger but had a similar Charlson comorbidity index and incidence of adenocarcinoma. There were no differences between groups in the incidence of complications, in-hospital mortality, and ICU stay, but patients who received NCR demonstrated a reduced length of hospital stay. NCR was associated with a reduced the incidence of positive pathological lymph node status and positive resection margin (3.1 vs. 21.1 %) in stage III esophageal cancer. No overall survival benefit was seen with use of NCR, although a nonsignificant improvement in survival of 22 months (p = 0.06) was noted in patients with adenocarcinoma. Negative resection margin was associated with an improved survival in both stage II and III patients.

Conclusions

This study highlights the importance of planning operations to optimize the opportunity to provide negative surgical resection margins and to identify patients not responding to NCR to allow them to proceed directly to surgery. Additional assessment of the effect of NCR on patients with adenocarcinoma is warranted.

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Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge the Ryan Hill Research Foundation for their support for this work and David Nickinovich, PhD, Health Science Matrix, Medical Outcomes Research Design & Analysis for the statistical analysis to support this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Sheraz R. Markar MRCS, MSc, MA, Artur Bodnar MD & Donald E. Low FACS, FRCS(C)

  2. Department of Oncology, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Joseph Rosales MD & Guobin Song MD

Authors
  1. Sheraz R. Markar MRCS, MSc, MA
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  2. Artur Bodnar MD
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  3. Joseph Rosales MD
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  4. Guobin Song MD
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  5. Donald E. Low FACS, FRCS(C)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donald E. Low FACS, FRCS(C).

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Markar, S.R., Bodnar, A., Rosales, J. et al. The Impact of Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy on Perioperative Outcomes, Tumor Pathology, and Survival in Clinical Stage II and III Esophageal Cancer. Ann Surg Oncol 20, 3935–3941 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-013-3137-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-013-3137-9

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