Different recurrence pattern after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy compared to surgery alone in esophageal cancer patients.

Abstract

82 Background: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is currently considered standard treatment in esophageal cancer patients who are eligible for surgical resection with curative intent. Objective was to evaluate the recurrence pattern after neoadjuvant CRT in patients with esophageal cancer. Methods: We analyzed the results and recurrence patterns from a single center (N=152) in a propensity score matched study between patients treated with neoadjuvant CRT (N=44) and surgery alone (44 from the 108),in the period 2002-2010. Patients treated with neoadjuvant (CROSS schedule) carboplatin/paclitaxel and 41.4 Gy radiotherapy, were compared with a historical cohort of patients with curative intended surgery alone. Surgery was performed through a transthoracic approach with 2-field lymphadenectomy. Results: After matching, the baseline characteristics were equally distributed between both groups (table 1). The response to CRT was 63%, with a pathological complete response of 26%. After a median follow-up of 23 months (7-74 months), lung was the most common site of distant recurrence (16%, N=7), followed by distant lymph nodes (11%, N=5) in the neoadjuvant CRT group, whereas skeletal metastases were the most common site of distant recurrence (18%, N=8), followed by skin or soft tissue (16%, N=7) in the surgical alone group. The estimated 3 and 5 year overall survival was 62% and 55% in the neoadjuvant CRT group, compared to 37% and 31% in the surgery group (Log-rank test: P=0.018). The estimated locoregional free recurrence survival (LRFS) after 3 and 5 years was 79% and 68% in the neoadjuvant CRT group, compared to 44% and 40% in the surgery alone group (Log-rank test: P=0.049). The estimated distant recurrence free survival (DRFS) was 63% and 54% after 3 and 5 years in the neoadjuvant CRT group, compared to 50% and 35% in the surgery alone group (Log-rank test: P=0.314). Conclusions: This neoadjuvant CRT regimen significantly improved oncological outcome compared to surgery alone. An important shift in recurrence pattern was observed from relatively high locoregional recurrences (LRFS) to relatively more distant recurrences (DRFS) in the CRT group compared to the surgery alone group.