Clinical and pathological features of esophageal and gastric junction adenocarcinoma and current status of postoperative adjuvant chemoradiotherapy

Abstract

The incidence of adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction (AEG) is rising rapidly in recent years. AEG as an independent disease different from squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus and gastric adenocarcinoma is getting acknowledged for most of scholars, with the distinctive anatomy location and involute recurrence and metastasis style. A higher rate of relapse and poor prognosis after resection become conscious since most of patients have been diagnosed with advanced disease, and adjuvant chemoradiotherapy needs to be valued further. But so far, there is no clinical data and subgroup analysis aimed at the value of postoperative treatment for AEG specially, leading to controversy is remaining in patients could get benefit from postoperative treatment, and delineation of the radiation target, etc. The design of the irradiation target should in terms of the clinical-pathological characteristics of the AEG, Siewert’s subtypes, the lymph node metastasis mapping and recurrence characteristics after surgery. Key words: Adenocarcinoma of the esophagus and stomach/postoperative adjuvant radiochemotherapy; Clinical pathological characteristics