Evaluation of Prognostic Factors for Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Treated with Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy Followed by Surgery.

Background: Intensive trimodality therapy is needed for locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However, some patients develop recurrence and die of cancer even after trimodality therapy.Methods: We evaluated prognostic factors based on data from 125 patients with ESCC who underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) comprising concurrent chemotherapy and 40 Gy of radiation, followed by curative-intent esophagectomy.Results: Thirty-four (27.2%) patients achieved a pathological complete response (pCR) after NCRT. The 5-year recurrence-free (RFS) and overall survival (OS) rates of all patients were 49.2 and 52.9%, respectively, and were significantly better for patients with pCR than without pCR (<italic>p</italic> = 0.01 and 0.02, respectively). Univariate and multivariate analyses selected performance status [PS 0 vs. 1: hazard ratio (HR) 2.05; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.30-4.84; <italic>p</italic> = 0.01] and ypN (0 vs. 1: HR 2.33; 95% CI 1.12-4.84; <italic>p</italic> = 0.02; 0 vs. 2/3: HR 3.73; 95% CI 1.68-8.28; <italic>p</italic> = 0.001) as independent covariates for RFS. Furthermore, PS (0 vs. 1; HR 2.94; 95% CI 1.51-5.72; <italic>p</italic> = 0.002) and ypN (0 vs. 1; HR 2.26; 95% CI 1.09-4.69; <italic>p</italic> = 0.03; 0 vs. 2/3: HR 3.90; 95% CI 1.79-8.48; <italic>p</italic> = 0.001) were also independent covariates for OS.Conclusions: Performance status 1 and ypN+ were significantly associated with a poor prognosis after trimodality therapy for ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]