Influence of Induction Therapy on Robot-Assisted McKeown Esophagectomy for Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background: The present study was to investigate the influence of induction therapy on robot-assisted McKeown esophagectomy (RAME) with radical superior mediastinal lymph node dissection for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in a high-volume cancer center. Methods: A consecutive patient cohort who underwent RAME from January 2017 to May 2019 were reviewed. The perioperative outcomes of patients with induction therapy were compared with those who had surgery alone. Results: In total, 118 patients underwent RAME during the study period. The average age was 59.1 ± 7.5 years, including 100 male and 18 female patients. Thirty patients (25.4%) had induction therapy, and 88 patients did not receive induction therapy. The average age of the patients treated with induction therapy was younger than those received surgery alone (56.8 ± 6.1 vs. 59.5 ± 7.6 years, p = 0.039). There were no statistically significant differences in the mean operative time and estimated blood loss between both groups. Complications occurred in 46 (39.0%) patients. There were no statistically significant differences in the rates of any complications between both groups (p = 0.951). There were no deaths in either group. The hospital stay was prolonged in patients with induction therapy than those in the surgery-alone group (20.8 ± 8.9 vs. 16.8 ± 6.0, p = 0.048). There was no statistically significant difference in the average number of dissected lymph nodes in total and both recurrent laryngeal nerve stations between both groups. Conclusion: For patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, induction therapy has no influence on RAME with radical superior mediastinal lymph node dissection.