278. SHORT- AND LONG-TERM OUTCOME AFTER UPFRONT SURGERY OR NEOADJUVANT CHEMOTHERAPY FOLLOWED BY SURGERY IN ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH RESECTABLE ESOPHAGEAL CANCER

Abstract

Abstract In Japan, the standard therapeutic strategy for resectable advanced esophageal cancer (R-AEC) is neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by surgery. However, there is no strong evidence of the strategy for the elderly patients, thus the efficacy of NAC for the elderly patients with R-AEC remains controversial. Here we studied the efficacy of NAC for R-AEC in the patients aged 75 or older. This study included the patients aged 75 or older who diagnosed with R-AEC and underwent esophagectomy in our institution from 2005 to 2021. Among the total of 59 cases with R-AEC, the cases who received neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy or who had poor follow-up were excluded, and the remaining 42 cases were enrolled in this cohort. Among 42 patients with R-AEC, 33 patients underwent UFS and 9 patients underwent NAC followed by surgery. The short- and long-term outcome was evaluated between upfront surgery (UFS) group and NAC group. There was a difference in historical background: patients in UFS group were more in 2012 or before, and patients in NAC group were more later than 2013. There was no significant differences in age, PS, Charlson comorbidity index and clinical characteristics such as TNM disease stage between two groups. The short-term outcome, the frequency of postoperative complications, curability, etc., was similar in two groups. In UFS group, only 5 cases (15.2%) underwent adjuvant chemotherapy. NAC improved 2-year RFS (UFS: 51.4% vs. NAC 76.2%, not significant), and 2-year OS (UFS 60.1% vs. NAC 71.1%, not significant). This study showed the likelihood of the benefits of NAC on the long-term outcomes without increasing the postoperative complications in patients with R-AEC aged 75 or older. There were some limitations in this study, single-institutional and retrospective study with small number of cases. The further study will be needed to clarify the efficacy of NAC in elderly patients with R-AEC.