Long-term outcomes of combined endoscopic resection and chemoradiotherapy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma with submucosal invasion.

BACKGROUND

For esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) with submucosal (SM) invasion, surgery is the standard treatment. Definitive chemoradiotherapy (D-CRT) is a less invasive alternative option, but sometimes results in locoregional failure.

AIM

To examine whether endoscopic resection for primary lesion removal combined with chemoradiotherapy (ER-CRT) reduces locoregional failure rates in cases of ESCC with SM invasion.

METHODS

We retrospectively compared clinical outcomes between ER-CRT and D-CRT in patients diagnosed with ESCC with SM invasion between 2003 and 2014. Twenty-one patients underwent ER-CRT based on a pathological diagnosis, and 43 patients underwent D-CRT based on a clinical diagnosis.

RESULTS

Locoregional failure developed in 26% of patients in the D-CRT group, and in no patients in the ER-CRT group (p < 0.01). Thus, the 5-year relapse-free survival in the ER-CRT group was significantly more favorable than that in the D-CRT group (85.1% vs 59.2%; p < 0.05), although there was no difference in overall survival (85.1% vs 79.1%) nor in cause-specific survival (90.5% vs 87.2%) between the groups. There were no instances of perforation or hemorrhage associated with ER.

CONCLUSION

ER-CRT is a safe and effective treatment strategy and can be considered as a new minimally invasive treatment option for patients with ESCC with SM invasion.