Accuracy of clinical staging with EUS for early stage esophageal cancer: Are we denying patients beneficial neoadjuvant chemo-radiation?

Abstract

163 Background: Esophagectomy alone has been considered the standard of care for early stage esophageal cancer (EC) while neoadjuvant therapy is now standard for locally advanced disease. The choice of treatment therefore hinges on accurate locoregional staging by endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). Our objective is to evaluate the accuracy of EUS performed in a high-volume tertiary cancer center in clinical stage T1N0 (cT1N0) and T2N0 (cT2N0) esophageal cancer patients undergoing esophagectomy without neoadjuvant therapy. Methods: A retrospective review of the esophageal cancer database at a single institution was performed. Patients with cT1N0 and cT2N0 esophageal cancer based on EUS undergoing esophagectomy without neoadjuvant treatment were evaluated. Patient demographics, tumor characteristics, and treatment were reviewed. Surgical pathology was compared to EUS staging. Results: Between 2000 and 2015, 139 patients were identified. There were 25 (18%) female and 114 (82%) male patients. The tumor location included the middle 1/3 of the esophagus in 11 (8%) and lower 1/3 and gastroesophageal junction in 128 (92%) patients. Eighty-one percent of patients had adenocarcinoma, 9% had squamous cell carcinoma, 9% had Barrett’s dysplasia, and 1% had mixed histology. Clinical staging were as follows: 110 (79%) patients had cT1N0 and 29 (21%) patients had cT2N0 tumors. For the entire cohort, preoperative EUS matched the final surgical pathology in 76/139 patients for an accuracy rate of 53%. Twenty-nine patients (21%) were under-staged by EUS; of those, 19 (14%) had unrecognized nodal disease. This included 12/109 (11%) of cT1N0 and 7/29 (24%) of cT2N0 patients. Conclusions: The accuracy of preoperative EUS staging in early esophageal cancer remains sub-optimal. Interestingly, a significant proportion (24%) of cT2N0 EC patients were found to have positive lymph nodes on surgical pathology, and perhaps these patients could have benefitted from neoadjuvant therapy. In light of these findings, the current management of cT2N0 esophageal cancer should be reconsidered.