Limited stage small cell carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract: a clinicopathologic and prognostic analysis of 27 cases.

Small cell carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract is a rare and aggressive neuroendocrine tumor. This study aims to analyze the clinical characteristics and potential prognostic factors for patients with limited stage small cell carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract. The records of 27 patients with limited stage small cell carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract, who all received surgery with lymphadenectomy, were retrieved and analyzed retrospectively. The median age of patients was 60 years old (range 38-79). The primary locations of tumor were the esophagus (74.1%) and stomach (14.8%). The rate of preoperative accurate diagnosis (16.7%) was low for small cell carcinoma of the esophagus and stomach. 40.7% of all the patients had regional lymph node metastases. Five patients underwent surgery alone, and the other 22 were treated with surgery + postoperative chemotherapy. All patients had disease progression or recurrence. The overall median survival time was 10 months and the 1-year survival rate was 37.0%. Patients who received postoperative chemotherapy had a median survival time of 12 months, which was superior to the 5-month survival of for those who only had surgery (P<0.0001). TNM stage (P=0.02) and postoperative chemotherapy (P<0.0001) were considered as two prognostic factors in uni-variate analysis. Postoperative chemotherapy was a significant independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis (P=0.01). The prognosis for patients with limited stage small cell carcinoma of the gastrointestinal tract remains dismal, however, postoperative chemotherapy may have the potential to improve the outcome for these patients.