Radical esophagectomy for stage II and III thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma followed by adjuvant radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy: Which is more beneficial?

Background This retrospective study compared the efficacy and side effect profile between postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy and chemoradiotherapy in stage II or stage III thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (TESCC) patients who underwent curative (R0) esophagectomy. Methods A total of 272 TESCC patients who underwent radical esophagectomy from 2007 to 2016 were included in this retrospective analysis. All cases were pathologically confirmed with stage II or III disease and 148 patients received postoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT), while the remaining 124 patients received postoperative radiotherapy (RT) alone. Results In CRT and RT groups, the three‐year overall survival rates were 51.3 versus 31.5% (P