Staging Of Esophageal Cancer Research Articles

Esophageal wall thickness on CT scans: can it predict the T stage of primary thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma?

CT is the most commonly used method to stage esophageal cancer (EC). However, the reported CT T-staging criteria for EC are controversial. To determine and validate the optimal esophageal wall thickness (EWT) threshold on CT to distinguish lesions with different T stages in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients. One thousand, one hundred-two consecutive patients with histopathologically confirmed ESCC between July 2014 and April 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. All patients underwent a preoperative CT examination and surgical treatment. The maximal EWT of the lesions on CT was measured. Patients were divided into pT1, pT2, pT3 and pT4 subgroups according to the pathologic stage. We employed the support vector machine, where linear kernels were leveraged to determine the optimal threshold to classify samples with different T stages. 90% of samples from each subgroup were randomly selected as the training set, while the remainder comprised the testing set. The mean EWTs of the pT1, pT2, pT3 and pT4 subgroups were 4.9 ± 2.6mm, 8.1 ± 2.3mm, 12.4 ± 3.6mm, and 18.6 ± 4.4mm, respectively. Differences in the EWT between the four subgroups or between adjacent subgroups were significant (p < 0.001), and esophageal wall became thicker with increasing pT stage. We utilized MATLAB 2020a to implement the SVM model and ran the code 10 times. The accuracy of the model was 60.29 ± 2.33%. The thresholds between samples from pT1/pT2, pT2/pT3 and pT3/pT4 lesions were 5.5 ± 0.3mm, 10.8 ± 0.8mm and 15.9 ± 0.5mm, respectively. Possibility of predicting T stage of ESCC by EWT on CT scans was limited to 60% by model examination with large sample size.

513 WHAT FACTORS INFLUENCE THE ACCURACY OF CLINICAL STAGING OF ESOPHAGEAL- AND GASTRIC CANCER IN SWEDEN? A NATIONAL REGISTER STUDY

Abstract Cancer treatment is increasingly tailored to the individual patient. Treatment decisions are based on the evaluation of clinical stage which in turn is based on the result of the diagnostic pre-treatment work-up. The aim of this study was to investigate the accuracy of clinical staging of esophageal and gastric cancer in Sweden and what factors influence the quality of the staging procedure. Methods All patients operated for esophageal or gastric cancer, without neoadjuvant treatment, in Sweden from 2006 to 2018 was extracted from the Swedish national registry for esophageal and gastric cancer. Clinical TNM (cTNM) and pathological TNM (pTNM) was compared. The most common preoperative modalities for staging were endoscopy and CT-scan. Data on sex, age, smoking habits, multidisciplinary cancer conferences (yes/no), time of surgery (categorized in 5-year periods), number of resected lymph nodes and region of surgery were extracted from the registry. Uni- and multivariate logistic regression analyses were made comparing patients with correct cTNM to patients with incorrect cTNM. Results A total of 2500 patients met the inclusion criteria. 1173 patients were excluded because of missing data leaving 1327 patients for analyses. cTNM stage and pTNM stage was identical in 38% of patients. In 35% of patients there was a +/−1 stage difference comparing cTNM to pTNM. For esophageal cancer T-stage was on target in 32% and N-stage in 50% of cases. For gastric cancer the corresponding figures were 35% and 48% respectively. Multivariate regression analyzes showed that operation in the later time periods, a higher number of resected lymph nodes and discussion at multidisciplinary cancer conference improved staging accuracy. Conclusion In this study we found that 73% of patients were staged on target or +/− one stage-level. Operation in the later time periods, a higher number of resected lymph nodes and discussion at multidisciplinary cancer conference improved staging accuracy. This data indicate that treatment decisions should be made in a multidisciplinary setting. We believe that the gradual centralization of surgery and treatment decisions in Sweden during this time-period partly explains the improved accuracy over time.

705 SIGNIFICANCE OF CLEAR CIRCUMFERENTIAL RESECTION MARGIN IN ESOPHAGEAL CANCER

Abstract Circumferential resection margins (CRM) of an esophagectomy specimen for oesophageal cancer is a key prognostic factor of overall survival (OS). This retrospective study aims to compare OS of post-esophagectomy patients with CRM of &amp;gt;1 mm (R0) and &amp;lt; 1 mm (R1) with further subgroup analysis of locally advanced T3R0 vs T3R1 resection. Methods A total of 110 esophagectomies conducted between 2010 and 2020 were analysed. We recorded R stage based on pathological CRM &amp;gt;1 mm (R0) or &amp;lt; 1 mm (R1). OS was calculated from the day of surgery to day of death or otherwise censored. All patients underwent multimodal therapy including chemotherapy and similar pre-surgical and post-surgical management. 58 of these patients with pT3 stage esophageal cancer (EC) were selected and compared. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS. Results Of 110 patients, 78 (71.5%) patients had a R0 resection. Mean OS in R0 resections was 73 months (6 years) compared to 25.2 months (2 years) in R1 resection (p = 0.001). 58 of the 110 patients were pathological stage T3(pT3) despite downstaging with chemotherapy showing the burden of advanced disease. In patients with stage pT3 (n = 58), 32 patients were R0 resections, and 26 patients had R1 resections. Mean OS in T3R0 resections was 51.5 months compared to 28.5 months in T3R1 resection. OS comparison is significant (p = 0.011). Conclusion This study emphasizes the importance of clear CRM in all patients and especially in locally advanced pT3/T4a esophageal cancer in achieving long term survival. Techniques used to ensure a clear CRM such multimodality therapy combined with surgical radical resection concepts such as mesoesophagectomy should be employed.

Hyperspectral Imaging Combined with Artificial Intelligence in the Early Detection of Esophageal Cancer.

Simple SummaryDetection of early esophageal cancer is important to improve patient survival, however, early diagnosis of the cancer cells is difficult, even for experienced endoscopists. This article provides a new method by using hyperspectral imaging and a deep learning diagnosis model to classify and diagnose esophageal cancer using a single-shot multibox detector. The accuracy of the results when using an RGB image in WLI was 83% and while using the spectrum data the accuracy was increased to 88%. There was an increase of 5% in WLI. The accuracy of the results when using an RGB image in NBI was 86% and while using the spectrum data the accuracy was increased to 91%. There was an increase of 5% in NBI. This study proves that the accuracy of prediction when using the spectrum data has been significantly improved and the diagnosis of narrow-band endoscopy data is more sensitive than that of white-light endoscopy.This study uses hyperspectral imaging (HSI) and a deep learning diagnosis model that can identify the stage of esophageal cancer and mark the locations. This model simulates the spectrum data from the image using an algorithm developed in this study which is combined with deep learning for the classification and diagnosis of esophageal cancer using a single-shot multibox detector (SSD)-based identification system. Some 155 white-light endoscopic images and 153 narrow-band endoscopic images of esophageal cancer were used to evaluate the prediction model. The algorithm took 19 s to predict the results of 308 test images and the accuracy of the test results of the WLI and NBI esophageal cancer was 88 and 91%, respectively, when using the spectral data. Compared with RGB images, the accuracy of the WLI was 83% and the NBI was 86%. In this study, the accuracy of the WLI and NBI was increased by 5%, confirming that the prediction accuracy of the HSI detection method is significantly improved.

Modern concepts of systemic treatment for adjuvant and palliative treatment of locally advanced or metastasized esophageal cancer

The approval of awide variety of PD-1/PD-L1 and CTLA‑4 inhibitors has sustainably influenced the treatment landscape in many tumor entities and established immunotherapy as anew oncological treatment strategy. This article summarizes the current clinical state of treatment for locally advanced and metastatic esophageal cancer and assesses the running and future developmental program and the implementation in the clinical routine. Publications from Medline, ASCO and ESMO were systematically collected and evaluated. Many phaseI-III trials focusing on immunotherapy for gastrointestinal tumors were carried out in recent years but were however without comparable success to other tumor entities and with only moderate response rates between 10% and 25% in monotherapy. Subgroups such as microsatellite instability (MSI) cancers and tumors overexpressing PD-L1 seem to particularly benefit from treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Routine testing for known molecular alterations should therefore be carried out with all advanced esophageal cancers. Initial promising approaches with a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy were recently published and could become new treatment standards for esophageal cancer. Due to the survival advantage with a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy for untreated advanced stage esophageal cancer, it seems likely that this treatment strategy will become established as anew standard of care, assuming approval is granted. Immunotherapy might also become important in the adjuvant treatment of esophageal cancer.

Incidence and relevance of clinically indeterminate nonregional lymph nodes in the treatment of oesophageal cancer.

Metastatic involvement of nonregional supraclavicular or superior mediastinal lymph nodes in distal oesophageal cancer is rare but has important implications for prognosis and management. The management of nonregional lymph nodes which appear indeterminate on CT and FDG PET-CT (subcentimeter nodes or those with preserved normal morphology, but increased FDG avidity) can present a diagnostic dilemma. This study investigates the incidence, work-up and clinical significance of nonregional clinically indeterminate FDG avid lymph nodes. A single-centre retrospective review of all FDG PET-CT scans conducted over 5 years was conducted. Patients with mid- or distal oesophageal cancer with nonregional FDG avid nodes were identified. Subsequent work-up, management and outcomes were retrieved from electronic health records. Reports for 1189 PET-CT scans were reviewed. A total of 79 patients met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 18 (23%) were deemed to have disease and performance status potentially amenable to radical surgery and underwent further assessment. The indeterminate lymph nodes were successfully sampled via endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) or ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (US-FNA) in 100% of cases. 15/18 (83.3%) of samples were benign and proceeded to surgery. Outcomes for patients who proceeded to surgery were similar to other cohorts. None had pathology suggesting false-negative lymph node sampling. EBUS and US-FNA are effective means of sampling clinically indeterminate nonregional lymph nodes, and can significantly impact prognosis, and management. Further investigations in this context are of value in this cohort and should be pursued. Nonregional clinically indeterminate lymph nodes represent a diagnostic dilemma in oesophageal cancer staging. Additional investigations in the form of endobronchial ultrasound are effective at providing additional staging information, and can substantially influence patient care.

Evaluation of the dosimetric impact of heart function-based volumetric modulated arc therapy planning in patients with esophageal cancer.

Radiotherapy for esophageal cancer entails high-dose irradiation of the myocardium owing to its close anatomical proximity to the esophagus. This study aimed to evaluate the dosimetric impact of functional avoidance planning for the myocardium with volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) in patients with esophageal cancer and determine the feasibility of functional planning. Ten patients with early stage esophageal cancer were included in this study. The prescribed dose was 60Gy administered in 30 fractions. An experienced physician contoured the left ventricle (LV) of the myocardium. For each patient, an anatomical plan (non-LV-sparing plan) and a functional plan (LV-sparing plan) were created using the VMAT. In the functional plan, the mean percentage of LV volume receiving a dose of ≥ 30 and ≥ 40Gy was 6.0% ± 6.7% and 2.4% ± 2.7%, respectively, whereas in the anatomical plan, they were 11.7% ± 13.1% and 4.9% ± 6.5%, respectively. There were no significant differences with respect to the dose to the hottest 1 cm3 of the planning target volume (PTV) and the minimum dose of the gross tumor volume and the dosimetric parameters of other normal tissues between the anatomical and functional plans. We compared the anatomical and functional plans of patients with esophageal cancer undergoing VMAT. Our results demonstrated that the functional plan reduced the dose to the LV with no significant differences in the organs at risk and PTV, indicating that avoidance planning can be safely performed when administering VMAT in patients with esophageal cancer.

Prognostic Significance of Pretreatment Staging With 18F-FDG PET in Esophageal Cancer: A Nationwide Population-Based Study.

Purpose of the ReportWithout the routine use of 18F-FDG PET for initial staging of esophageal cancer, it may lead to inaccurate staging and suboptimal treatment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of pretreatment 18F-FDG PET in nonmetastatic esophageal cancer by comparing the survival between patients with and without pretreatment PET.Materials and MethodsWe selected newly diagnosed esophageal cancer patients without metastasis between 2009 and 2015 from Taiwan Cancer Registry and National Health Insurance Research Database. Pretreatment 18F-FDG PET staging was determined according to the implementation of PET within 90 days before starting treatment. Overall survival was calculated from the day of treatment initiation to the death from any cause. Survival curves were compared between patients with and without PET staging using the log-rank test.ResultsOf the 9078 patients included, 1765 (19.4%) and 7313 (80.6%) patients were staged with and without pretreatment PET, respectively. The median follow-up time for all patients and survivors was 1.29 years and 5.46 years, respectively. The pretreatment PET group had a lower risk of death than the no pretreatment PET group (hazards ratio, 0.74; 95% confidence interval, 0.70–0.79; P < 0.001). After adjusting for age, stage, histology, and tumor location, pretreatment PET remained significantly correlated with a lower risk of death (hazards ratio, 0.78; 95% confidence interval, 0.73–0.83; P < 0.001).ConclusionsThe utilization of pretreatment 18F-FDG PET for staging in nonmetastatic esophageal malignancy is associated with a lower risk of death even after adjusting for age, stage, histology, and tumor location.

Trends in Esophageal Cancer Mortality and Stage at Diagnosis by Race and Ethnicity in the United States

IntroductionEsophageal cancer (EC) is an aggressive malignancy with poor prognosis. Mortality and disease stage at diagnosis are important indicators of improvements in cancer prevention and control. We examined United States trends in esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) mortality and stage at diagnosis by race and ethnicity.MethodsWe used Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data to identify individuals with histologically confirmed EAC and ESCC between 1 January 1992 and 31 December 2016. For both EAC and ESCC, we calculated age-adjusted mortality and the proportion presenting at each stage by race/ethnicity, sex, and year. We then calculated the annual percent change (APC) in each indicator by race/ethnicity and examined changes over time.ResultsThe study included 19,257 EAC cases and 15,162 ESCC cases. EAC mortality increased significantly overall and in non-Hispanic Whites from 1993 to 2012 and from 1993 to 2010, respectively. EAC mortality continued to rise among non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB) (APC = 1.60, p = 0.01). NHB experienced the fastest decline in ESCC mortality (APC = − 4.53, p < 0.001) yet maintained the highest mortality at the end of the study period. Proportions of late stage disease increased overall by 18.5 and 24.5 percentage points for EAC and ESCC respectively; trends varied by race/ethnicity.ConclusionWe found notable differences in trends in EAC and ESCC mortality and stage at diagnosis by race/ethnicity. Stage migration resulting from improvements in diagnosis and treatment may partially explain recent trends in disease stage at diagnosis. Future efforts should identify factors driving current esophageal cancer disparities.

Cross-talk between next generation sequencing methodologies to identify genomic signatures of esophageal cancer.

The asymptomatic behaviour of esophageal cancerous cells at early stages develops advanced clinical presentation of the disease, resulting in poor prognosis and curbed intervention of therapeutic modalities. The endeavours to detect diagnostic and prognostic markers have been proven futile at the clinical platform. While several biomarkers have been investigated, including CYFRA 21-1, carcinoembryonic antigen and squamous cell carcinoma antigen, their sensitivity has not proved consistently satisfactory across the various stages of esophageal cancer. Hence, there is an impending requirement of biomarkers for early diagnosis and better prognosis. In the recent past, next generation sequencing (NGS) tool has emerged as an important tool to highlight the hallmarks of esophageal cancer (EC). This review summarizes the changes/mutations occurred in tumor cells during carcinogenesis and addresses the contribution of NGS techniques, viz. whole genome sequencing (WGS), RNA-Sequencing and Exome sequencing (ES), in EC. Additionally, this review highlights the connection between the findings from these techniques. An effort has been made to emphasize the genes affected and involved signaling pathway in EC. Further, investigations of these mutated genes would not only shed light on the relevant genes to be studied but also help in the better management and cure through personalized therapy.

New frontiers in esophageal radiology.

Esophageal cancer is the sixth most common cause of cancer related mortality worldwide. Advances in treatment have translated into steadily improving survival rates. Accurate preoperative staging of esophageal cancer is imperative in order to provide an accurate prognosis and direct patients to the most appropriate treatment. Current preoperative staging relies on imaging, most commonly endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET). A combination of these modalities should be used in preoperative staging, as each has advantages over another. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has always shown promise in its ability to accurately stage esophageal cancer, though it has not been consistently adopted as a common tool for this purpose. Recent research has demonstrated that MRI can become an integral part of esophageal cancer clinical staging. Advances in MR technology that utilize radial sampling allow for shorter, free breathing techniques without degradation of image quality, resulting in improved capability for T and N staging of esophageal cancer. MRI enhanced with superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) and ultrasmall SPIO (USPIO) nanoparticles has been shown to be useful for the detection of metastatic disease in lymph nodes. This article will review the current evidence in the role that imaging plays in staging esophageal cancer.

Predicting and Preventing Postoperative Pulmonary Complications after Esophagectomy in the Era of Enhanced Recovery after Surgery

Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPC), anastomotic leakage and cardiac complications were the most common complications after planned esophagectomy, with an incidence of 30%, 19% and 13% respectively. However, 5-year survival in early stage esophageal cancer patients with or without postoperative pulmonary complications was 40% and 65%. In the era of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS), PPC after esophagectomy has dropped greatly owing to more proven evidence including perioperative goal-guided hemodynamic therapy, intraoperative protective ventilation, effective multimodal pain relief, minimally invasive esophagectomy compared with several years ago.

Frequencies of Porphyromonas gingivalis Detection in Oral-Digestive Tract Tumors.

Mounting evidence suggests a causal relationship between specific bacterial infections and the development of certain malignancies. In this study, we examined the presence of Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) in oral-digestive tract tumors by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and PCR and analyzed the correlation between P. gingivalis detection and clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of oral and esophageal carcinoma. The IHC results showed that the positive rates of P. gingivalis were 60.00, 46.00, 20.00, 6.67, and 2.86% in oral, esophagus, cardiac, stomach, and colorectal cancer tissues, respectively. Likewise, PCR results showed rates of 56.00, 42.00, 16.67, 3.33, and 2.86%, respectively. The two methods were consistent, and the kappa value was 0.806, P < 0.001. In addition, P. gingivalis expression was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis and the clinical stages of oral and esophageal cancer (P < 0.05). The overall survival rate of the P. gingivalis undetected group (86, 50%) was significantly higher than that of the P. gingivalis detected group (57, 14%) for oral and esophageal cancer, respectively. In conclusion, the detection rate of P. gingivalis showed a decreasing trend in oral-digestive tract tumors. Detection with P. gingivalis was associated with poor prognosis for oral and esophageal cancer.

Management of Locally Advanced Esophageal Cancer.

Esophageal cancer is diagnosed usually at a locally advanced stage. Surgery alone has less optimal results and a multimodality approach has been established as the standard of care for cII-III stages of esophageal cancer. This review focuses on the recent evidences of management of esophageal cancer with various variations in approaches in Eastern and Western countries. The major difference is the selection of induction treatment. Till the results of some ongoing trials become available, most of the evidences support neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by surgery for squamous cell carcinoma and perioperative chemotherapy and surgery for adenocarcinoma.

Review of MR-Guided Radiotherapy for Esophageal Cancer.

In this review, we outline the potential benefits and the future role of MRI and MR-guided radiotherapy (MRgRT) in the management of esophageal cancer. Although not currently used in most clinical practice settings, MRI is a useful non-invasive imaging modality that provides excellent soft tissue contrast and the ability to visualize cancer physiology. Chemoradiation therapy with or without surgery is essential for the management of locally advanced esophageal cancer. MRI can help stage esophageal cancer, delineate the gross tumor volume (GTV), and assess the response to chemoradiotherapy. Integrated MRgRT systems can help overcome the challenge of esophageal motion due to respiratory motion by using real-time imaging and tumor tracking with respiratory gating. With daily on-table MRI, shifts in tumor position and tumor regression can be taken into account for online-adaptation. The combination of accurate GTV visualization, respiratory gating, and online adaptive planning, allows for tighter treatment volumes and improved sparing of the surrounding normal organs. This could lead to a reduction in radiotherapy induced cardiac toxicity, pneumonitis and post-operative complications. Tumor physiology as seen on diffusion weighted imaging or dynamic contrast enhancement can help individualize treatments based on the response to chemoradiotherapy. Patients with a complete response on MRI can be considered for organ preservation while patients with no response can be offered an earlier resection. In patients with a partial response to chemoradiotherapy, areas of residual cancer can be targeted for dose escalation. The tighter and more accurate targeting enabled with MRgRT may enable hypofractionated treatment schedules.

CLO21-027: Defining Optimal Lymph Node Dissection and Clinical Impact of Number of Harvested Lymph Nodes During Esophageal Resection for Early Stage Esophageal Cancer

"CLO21-027: Defining Optimal Lymph Node Dissection and Clinical Impact of Number of Harvested Lymph Nodes During Esophageal Resection for Early Stage Esophageal Cancer" published on 17 Mar 2021 by National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

A national cross-sectional survey investigating the use of endoscopic ultrasound in the diagnosis and treatment of oesophageal cancer in the UK

To evaluate variation in the pre-pandemic use of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) for oesophageal cancer diagnosis and treatment planning up to 2019, and which factors contributed to this. A UK-wide online survey of oesophagogastric multidisciplinary team lead clinicians was undertaken to determine perceptions towards, and the use of, EUS to aid staging and treatment planning in oesophageal cancer. Thirty-five responses were received, representing 97 UK National Health Service Trusts/Health Boards. A majority of centres (n=21, 60%) did not have formal written guidance for EUS use. Although all respondents had access to EUS, a perceived lack of utility (n=7) and concerns about delaying treatment start dates (n=8) each restricted EUS use for a fifth of respondents. For most centres (n=24, 68.6%), EUS use is case-specific, whereas for 10 (28.6%) EUS is used for all patients with potentially curable disease. A majority of centres use diagnostic positron-emission tomography for radiotherapy target volume delineation (TVD), whereas 22 (62.9%) use EUS. The factors contributing to decisions to use EUS for staging, TVD and surgical planning varied between centres. The proportion of centre respondents who would request EUS in each of six clinical scenarios varied considerably. There were substantial differences in the patient and disease characteristics that are perceived to be indications for EUS use for both staging and treatment planning. Research to clarify in which patients with oesophageal cancer EUS affords benefit is required, as is urgent standardisation of its role in the diagnostic pathway.

A proposal for uniformity in classification of lymph node stations in esophageal cancer.

SummaryThe 11th edition of the “Japanese Classification of Esophageal Cancer” by the Japan Esophageal Society (JES) and the 8th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)/Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) “Cancer Staging Manual” are two separate classification systems both widely used for the clinical and pathological staging of esophageal cancer. Furthermore, the lymph node stations from these classification systems are combined for research purposes in the multinational TIGER study, which investigates the distribution pattern of lymph node metastases. The existing classification systems greatly differ with regard to number, location and anatomical boundaries of locoregional lymph node stations. The differences in these classifications cause significant heterogeneity in studies on lymph node metastases in esophageal cancer. This makes data interpretation difficult and comparison of studies challenging. In this article, we propose a match for these two commonly used classification systems and additionally for the TIGER study classification, in order to be able to compare results of studies and exchange knowledge and to make steps towards one global uniform classification system for all patients with esophageal cancer.

Utilization Trends and Volume-outcomes Relationship of Endoscopic Resection for Early Stage Esophageal Cancer.

We describe utilization trends and center volume-outcomes relationship of ER of early stage esophageal cancer using a large hospitalbased registry. ER is increasingly accepted as the preferred treatment for early stage esophageal cancer, however its utilization and the center volume-outcomes relationship in the United States is unknown. The National Cancer Database was used to identify patients with cT1N0M0 esophageal cancer treated with ER or esophagectomy between 2004 and 2015. Relative frequencies were plotted over time. Restricted cubic splines and maximally selected rank statistics were used to identify an inflection point of center volume and survival. A total of 1136 patients underwent ER and 2829 patients underwent esophagectomy during the study period. Overall utilization of ER, and relative use compared to esophagectomy, increased throughout the study period. Median annualized center ER volume was 1.9 cases per year (interquartile range 0.5-5.8). Multivariable Cox regression showed increasing annualized center volume by 1 case per year was associated with improved survival. Postoperative 30- or 90-day mortality, 30-day readmission, and pathologic T upstaging rates were similar irrespective of center volume. Utilization of ER compared to esophagectomy for stage I esophageal cancer has increased over the past decade, though many individual centers perform fewer than 1 case annually. increasing annualized center volume by one procedure per year was associated with improved survival. increased volume beyond this was not associated with survival benefit. Referral to higher volume centers for treatment of superficial esophageal cancer should be considered.

Endoscopic ultrasound for staging of esophageal and gastric cancers

Background: Gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) are one of the leading causes of mortality from gastrointestinal cancer worldwide. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has proved to be a valuable tool for preoperative staging of GAC and EAC in selected cases. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of EUS for staging of EAC and GAC and selecting patients who are candidates for neoadjuvant therapy, as compared with the previous stage before the implementation of EUS, in a surgical center in Argentina. Material and methods: Consecutive patients with EAC and GAC between 2013-2019 were included. Patients with criteria of unresectable cancer or who underwent emergency surgery were excluded. The sample was divided into four groups G1 and G2 (EAC with and without EUS, respectively) and G3 and G4 (GAC with and without EUS, respectively). The clinical and anatomopathological variables and survival were evaluated in all the groups. Results: A total of 89 patients were included, 40 with EAC (30 in G1 and 10 in G2, and 49 with GAC, 20 in G3 and 29 in G4. Of the patients undergoing EUS staging in G1, 23 (75%) received neoadjuvant therapy vs. 2 patients in G2 (20%) (P ≤ 0.005). Eight patients (40%) in G3 and 2 (7%) in G4 received perioperative chemotherapy (P ≤ 0.005). Lymph node metastases were observed in 9 (30%) of surgical specimens of EAC in G1 and in 60% in G2 (P ≤ 0.005), and in 45% in G3 and G4. After a mean follow-up of 36 months (6-72), we observed a non-significant trend toward higher overall survival and disease-free survival in patients undergoing EUS staging. Conclusion: EUS for preoperative staging pf EAC and GAC is a useful tool. Although the use of EUS use may be a challenging task in many centers in Argentina, future efforts are needed to include this test in selected cases for staging patients with these types of cancers