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Body weight loss and poor nutritional status are frequently observed after esophageal cancer surgery. The aim of this study was to pilot an investigation on the impact of home enteral tube feeding supplementation (HES) for up to 3 months after esophageal cancer surgery. We retrospectively reviewed consecutive 67 esophageal cancer patients who underwent esophagectomy with gastric tube reconstruction. We started HES from April 2017. The patients were divided into 2 groups. Among 67 patients, 40 patients underwent HES between April 2017 and November 2020 (HES group). Other 27 patients who underwent esophagectomy between January 2012 and March 2017 were not administered HES (C group). Thereafter, multiple factors concerning patient nutritional status at long-term follow-up were evaluated. The baseline characteristics were balanced between the two groups. There were no significant differences in nutritional status scores before esophagectomy. The percentage weight loss was less in the HES group compared with the C group both at 3 months and 1 year after surgery: 7.3% (−7.6 to 15.2), 7.7% (−4 to 13.9) in the HES group and 10.6% (−3.6 to 29.1), 10.8% (−5.8 to 20.0) in C group (P  < 0.05, P  < 0.05). In the patients with anastomotic stenosis, the percentage weight loss was less in the HES group compared with the C group: 7.2% (2.0–14.9) and 14.6% (6.2–29.1), P  < 0.05. HES may improve early weight loss in postesophagectomy patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study evaluates surgical outcomes of Ivor Lewis esophagectomy (ILE) in our institution, with the transition from open ILE to hybrid or totally minimally invasive ILE (MI-ILE). Methods: Selected patients who underwent ILE for esophageal cancer between 2013 and 2020 were included. We retrospectively investigated the patients' background characteristics and the short-term surgical outcomes. Results: In this period, among a total of 858 esophagectomies, selected seventy-one patients (8.3%) underwent ILE, consisted of 17 cases with completely open procedures, 27 with hybrid MI-ILE, and 27 with total MI-ILE. The major indications for ILE were adenocarcinoma of the distal esophagus or esophagogastric junction (33.8%) and patients with prior treatment of head and neck cancer (31.0%). Among these approaches, there were no significant differences in the characteristics including age, body mass index (BMI), tumor location, preoperative therapy, and clinical TNM stage, except for histology. Compared to the completely open and hybrid groups, incidences of both total and severe complications in the total MI-ILE group were significantly lower (total 70.6 vs. 66.6 vs. 37.0%, p=0.036; severe 35.3 vs. 44.4 vs. 11.1%, p=0.023), and also, those of pneumonia (41.2 vs. 29.6 vs. 7.4%, p=0.026) and postoperative stricture (11.8 vs. 18.5 vs. 0%, p=0.001) were significantly fewer in the total MI-ILE group. Conclusions: We have been able to achieve the transition from completely open to total MI-ILE with better short-term outcomes. Total MI-ILE with linear-stapled anastomosis can be a good alternative to open procedures for the selected patients with reducing the incidence of postoperative pneumonia and anastomotic stricture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A limited number of studies have evaluated the risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE) during neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for esophageal cancer and the efficacy of a D-dimer (DD)-based VTE screening (DBS). In the present study, we aimed to clarify the changes in DD levels and the effectiveness of DBS. Methods: We included 234 patients who underwent esophagectomy between August 2017 and July 2019 and evaluated the changes in DD levels before and after NAC. We had introduced the DBS strategy in August 2018, in which we recommended ultrasound (US) of the leg or computed tomography (CT) with the deep vein thrombosis (DVT) protocol. We then evaluated the incidence of VTE detected by DBS compared with that in the clinical practice as a control. Results: The DD levels were significantly increased after NAC. After the introduction of DBS, the proportion of patients who underwent US and CT after NAC was significantly increased. VTE was more frequently detected in the DBS group than in the control group (16.7% vs. 3.0%, p < 0.02) among patients who underwent NAC. Pulmonary embolism (PE) during NAC was also more frequent in the DBS than in the control group (7.6% vs. 1.5%, p = 0.06). The DD levels after NAC were significantly higher in patients with VTE than in those without. Conclusions: NAC for patients with esophageal cancer increases the risk of developing VTE. DBS is useful in identifying asymptomatic DVT and may contribute to improving patient safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article Recent progress in multidisciplinary treatment for patients with esophageal cancer, written by Masayuki Watanabe, Reiko Otake, Ryotaro Kozuki, Tasuku Toihata, Keita Takahashi, Akihiko Okamura, Yu Imamura, was originally published Online First without Open Access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]