Adjuvant chemotherapy and outcomes in esophageal carcinoma

Standard treatment for locally advanced esophageal cancer is neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by surgery. The role of postoperative chemotherapy is unclear. We sought to determine the indications, patterns, and outcomes for adjuvant chemotherapy in esophageal carcinoma.

This single institution retrospective review included patients with esophageal cancer who received neoadjuvant chemoradiation and surgery at Moffitt. We identified patients in this cohort who additionally received adjuvant chemotherapy. Medical records were reviewed for demographic/clinical information. Survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by log-rank. Case-control analysis was performed using a 2:1 nearest neighbor propensity score matching algorithm, which included 92 without adjuvant chemotherapy and 46 with adjuvant chemotherapy.

We identified 382 patients, 46 of whom received adjuvant chemotherapy. Patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy were younger (60.2 vs. 63.8 years; P=0.047), more likely to have adenocarcinoma (91% vs. 85%; P=0.034), had more advanced ypT and ypN classifications (P<0.001), less response to neoadjuvant therapy (P<0.001), and more margin positivity (15% vs. 4%; P=0.007). With propensity score matching analysis, no variables were significantly different between the two matched groups. Median follow-up times for the entire cohort and for case-control analysis were 2.9 and 2.4 years, respectively. There were no significant differences in overall or recurrence-free survival (RFS) between groups in either analysis.

The role of adjuvant chemotherapy following neoadjuvant chemoradiation and surgery in esophageal cancer is unclear. We found no significant difference in survival based on adjuvant chemotherapy. Future prospective studies should further investigate potential survival benefits and morbidity.