Influence of Patients' Age in the Utilization of Esophagectomy for Esophageal Adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND

The indication of surgical resection in esophageal cancer is often conditioned by patient's age. We aimed to assess the trends in utilization of surgical treatment for esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) in the United States, stratified by age groups.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective analysis of the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program registry for the period 2004-2014. Adult patients (aged ≥18 years) diagnosed with EAC were eligible for inclusion. The yearly incidence of esophagectomy, stratified by age groups (18-49, 50-70, and >70 years old), was calculated using Poisson regression. Weighted log-binomial regression was used to compare the proportion of patients undergoing esophagectomy, within each age group. Inverse probability of treatment weights were used to account for potential confounders.

RESULTS

A total of 21,301 patients were included. During the study period, the rate of esophagectomy decreased from 34.1% to 28.2% (P = .40) in patients between 18 and 49 years old, from 38.6% to 33.3% (P = .06) in patients between 50 and 70 years old, and from 21.4% to 16.9% (P = .04) in patients older than 70 years. After accounting for patient and cancer characteristics, patients older than 70 years were 50% less likely to undergo esophagectomy compared with both patients between 18 and 49 years old (risk ratio [RR] 0.51, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.45-0.57, P < .0001) and patients between 50 and 70 years old (RR 0.53, 95% CI 0.50-0.56, P < .0001).

CONCLUSION

Surgical resection is scarcely used in patients older than 70 years in the United States. Further investigation of surgical outcomes in elderly patients is warranted to determine if surgical treatment is underutilized in a large proportion of EAC patients.