Impact of postoperative lymph node status on the prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma after esophagectomy following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy: a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND:Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) and surgery are widely used treatments for locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Thus, it is critically important to investigate risk factors that affect patient prognosis after preoperative chemoradiotherapy and surgery. METHODS:We conducted a retrospective analysis of 77 patients with ESCC who received nCRT and underwent surgery at our center from January 2015 to December 2019. We analyzed the primary clinical data, postoperative pathological results, recurrence, and death results. RESULTS:Among the 77 ESCC patients who received nCRT and surgery, 19 achieved a postoperative pathologic complete response (pCR), and the overall pCR rate was 24.68%. The univariate analysis indicated that postoperative post-neoadjuvant treatment N stage (ypN) metastasis [hazards ratio (HR): 2.908; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.874-9.676; P=0.082], a high lymph-node ratio [(LNR) >0.1] (HR: 7.149, 95% CI: 1.740-29.369; P=0.006), post-neoadjuvant treatment T3-4 (ypT3-4) (HR: 3.626, 95% CI: 0.824-15.956; P=0.088) affected disease-specific survival (DSS). The multivariate analysis indicated that a high LNR (>0.1) (HR: 6.170; 95% CI: 1.472-25.856; P=0.013) was a significant independent predictor of DSS. The univariate analysis indicated that postoperative ypN metastasis (HR: 2.283; 95% CI: 1.047-4.979; P=0.038) and a high LNR (>0.1) (HR: 4.210; 95% CI: 1.547-11.458; P=0.005) were associated with recurrence-free survival (RFS). The multivariate survival analysis showed that a high LNR (>0.1) (HR: 4.289; 95% CI: 1.538-11.965; P=0.005) was also a significant independent predictor of RFS. In this study, 57 positive lymph nodes were found in 30 of the 77 patients, including 16 left gastric lymph nodes, 9 pericardial lymph nodes, and 7 left supraclavicular lymph nodes. CONCLUSIONS:A high LNR (>0.1) in ESCC patients after nCRT is a risk factor of DSS and RFS. ypN metastasis is also an independent predictor of RFS. Left gastric-arterial lymph nodes, para-cardiac lymph nodes, and left supraclavicular lymph nodes are the most common sites of metastasis in ESCC after nCRT.