Incidence and prognostic significance of extramural venous invasion in T3–4 esophageal cancer

Abstract

44Background: Extra mural venous invasion (EMVI) is known as an adverse prognostic indicator of survival and an important predictor of systemic recurrences in colorectal carcinoma. However, the incidence and significance of EMVI in esophageal cancer (EC) have not been studied well. Aim: To estimate the incidence and the prognostic significance of EMVI in pathological stage T3-4 EC resection specimens without neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) Methods: From a prospective maintained database we retrospectively review the resected specimens of patients with an EC. For adequate EMVI assessment we only included patients without nCRT and excluded patients without previous malignancies and patients with cardia/gastroesophageal junction tumors. A total of 76 patients were included between 2000 and 2012. EMVI was assessed on haematoxylin and eosin slides and for confirmation additional Elastica van Gieson staining was performed. Disease free survival was analyzed using a multivariable logistic regression and Kap...