Long-term results of salvage endoscopic treatment for patients with local failure after chemoradiotherapy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Abstract

207 Background: Local failure is a major problem after chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and salvage surgery presents high morbidity and mortality rates. We have introduced photodynamic therapy (PDT) and endoscopic resection (ER) for local failures to develop a less invasive salvage treatment.The aim of this retrospective study was to clarify the long-term outcome of salvage endoscopic treatments (SET). Methods: Between 1998 and 2008, 716 patients with ESCC were treated with definitive CRT in our institution. There were 314 patients with incomplete response and 103 with local recurrence after achieving complete response (CR) once. The indication criteria of SET were as follows: 1) absence of lymph node and distant metastasis and 2) local failures limited within T2. ER was performed for local failures limited to T1b (SM1), and PDT was performed for lesions invading T1b (SM2) or T2, in patients who could not tolerate or who refused surgery. We assessed overall survival (OS), relapse-free survival (RFS), and also prognostic factors. This study was approved by an institutional review board. Results: A total of 164 patients with local failure underwent SET (ER: 58, PDT: 106). The characteristics before CRT were as follows: T1/2/3/4, 44/25/75/20; N0/1, 85/79; stage I/II/III/IV, 35/59/57/13; and those of before SET were as follows: T1/2, 126/38; residue/recurrence, 76/88. ER achieved curative resection in 51 (87.9%), and PDT achieved CR in 61 (57.5%) patients. With a median follow up period of 73 months, the OS and RFS rates at 5 years from SET were 38.6% (95% CI 31.0–46.2) and 28.1% (95% CI 21.0–35.2). Multivariate analysis revealed 2 preferable prognostic factors in common for OS and RFS, N0 before CRT (OS HR: 0.47 [95% CI 0.32–0.69], RFS HR: 0.61 [95%CI 0.43–0.87]) and a period from initiation of CRT to SET longer than 6 months (OS HR: 0.57 [95%CI 0.39–0.84], RFS HR: 0.67 [0.47–0.95]). After 5 years of follow up, 58 patients (35.4%) were alive without any metastasis under esophagus preservation. Conclusions: SET demonstrated a favorable outcome in an analysis of a large number of patients with local failure after definitive CRT for ESCC.