Exclusive radical surgery for esophageal adenocarcinoma

Because very poor survival rates were reported after exclusive nonradical surgery, the current opinion in the medical community is that very few esophageal adenocarcinoma patients can anticipate long-term survival after esophagectomy. In the current study the ability of exclusive radical surgery including very extended lymph node dissection to provide a substantial percentage of patients with long-term survival was examined.

Radical esophagectomy (including removal of the esophageal tube, excision of the potentially involved locoregional lymph nodes, and skeletization of the nonresectable vital organs in the mediastinum and upper abdomen) was attempted in 183 consecutive patients with either Barrett (n = 77) or non-Barrett (n = 106) adenocarcinoma of the esophagus or cardia. Esophagectomy was subtotal (neck anastomosis) or distal (chest anastomosis) in 103 patients and 80 patients, respectively.

Radical esophagectomy (Ro resection) was feasible in 137 patients (75%) whereas 46 patients (25%) in whom a part of the neoplastic process was not resectable (R1 or R2 resection) underwent a palliative esophagectomy. The 5-year survival, including in-hospital deaths (4.3%), was 35.3% for the whole series, 48% after Ro resection, and 0% after R1 or R2 resection. The 5-year survival rate after any R resection was 57.2% in patients with Barrett adenocarcinoma compared with 20% in patients with non-Barrett adenocarcinoma (P < 0.0001) because of a higher prevalence of nontransmural tumors (Tis through T2, N0) in the former group (56.5%) compared with the latter group (6.6%) (P < 0.0001). The 5-year survival was related closely to the magnitude of both wall penetration and extraesophageal neoplastic spread (Ro, Tis-T1-T2, N0 = 83.5% vs. Ro, T3, N0 = 44.4% vs. Ro, any T, N1 < 5 metastatic lymph nodes = 37% vs. Ro, any T, N1 > or = 5 metastastic lymph nodes = 6.8% vs. R1, R2 = 0%; P < 0.0001).

Exclusive radical esophagectomy provides a chance of long-term survival in 35% of esophageal adenocarcinoma patients in whom it is attempted and nearly 50% of those patients in whom it is feasible. The presence of a small number of metastatic lymph nodes does not appear to preclude a long-term favorable outcome.