Impact of Preoperative Time Intervals for Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy on Short-term Postoperative Outcomes of Esophageal Cancer Surgery: A Population-based Study Using the Dutch Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Audit (DUCA) Data.

OBJECTIVE

To clarify the impact of the preoperative time intervals on short-term postoperative and pathologic outcomes in patients with esophageal cancer who underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) followed by esophagectomy.

BACKGROUND

The impact of preoperative intervals on patients with esophageal cancer who received multimodality treatment remains unknown.

METHODS

Patients (cT1-4aN0-3M0) treated with nCRT plus esophagectomy were included using the Dutch national DUCA database. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the effect of different time intervals upon short-term postoperative and pathologic outcomes: diagnosis-to-nCRT intervals (≤5, 5-8, and 8-12 weeks), nCRT-to-surgery intervals (5-11, 11-17, and >17 weeks) and total preoperative intervals (≤16, 16-25, and >25 weeks).

RESULTS

Between 2010 and 2021, a total of 5052 patients were included. Compared with diagnosis-to-nCRT interval ≤5 weeks, the interval of 8 to 12 weeks was associated with a higher risk of overall complications ( P =0.049). Compared with nCRT-to-surgery interval of 5 to 11 weeks, the longer intervals (11-17 and >17 weeks) were associated with a higher risk of overall complications ( P =0.016; P <0.001) and anastomotic leakage ( P =0.004; P =0.030), but the interval >17 weeks was associated with lower risk of ypN+ ( P =0.021). The longer total preoperative intervals were not associated with the risk of 30-day mortality and complications compared with the interval ≤16 weeks, but the longer total preoperative interval (>25 weeks) was associated with higher ypT stage ( P =0.010) and lower pathologic complete response rate ( P =0.013).

CONCLUSIONS

In patients with esophageal cancer undergoing nCRT and esophagectomy, prolonged preoperative time intervals may lead to higher morbidity and disease progression, and the causal relationship requires further confirmation.