Radiotherapy with or without concurrent chemotherapy for lymph node recurrence after radical surgery of thoracic...

To retrospectively compare the outcomes of patients with lymph node recurrence after radical surgery of esophageal cancer, when given radiotherapy with or without concurrent chemotherapy.

Between January 1996 and December 2005, the data from 73 patients with lymph node recurrence after radical surgery of thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were retrospectively reviewed. The patients were separated into two groups: radiochemotherapy (RC, 31 patients) and radiotherapy alone (RA, 42 patients). Patients in the RC group received at least two cycles of 5-fluorouracil/cisplatin chemotherapy concurrently with radiotherapy.

The median duration of follow-up was 11 months (range, 2-48). The overall survival rate for all patients was 46.7% and 4.7% at 1 and 3 years, respectively. The median overall survival time was 9 months (95% confidence interval, 6.96-11.04) and 17 months (95% confidence interval, 13.61-20.39) for RA and RC groups, respectively. The survival rate at 1 and 3 years was 62.5% and 10.5% in the RC group and 33.8% and 0% in the RA group (p = .0049, log-rank test; hazard ratio for death, 0.52; 95% confidence interval, 0.30-0.92). Acute toxicities were more frequent in the RC group than in the RA group. No significant differences were found in the late toxicity profiles between the two groups.

The results of the present retrospective analysis suggest that RC should be considered an effective and well-tolerated treatment of patients with thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and postoperative lymph node recurrence.