Conditional survival and annual hazard of death in older patients with esophageal cancer receiving definitive chemoradiotherapy

Definitive chemoradiotherapy is one of the primary treatment modalities for older patients with esophageal cancer (EC). However, the evolution of prognosis over time and the factors affected non-EC deaths remain inadequately studied. We examined the conditional survival and annual hazard of death in older patients with EC after chemoradiotherapy. We collected data from patients aged 65 or older with EC registered in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database during 2000–2019. Conditional survival was defined as the probability of survival given a specific time survived. Annual hazard of death was defined the yearly event rate. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) analysis identified the association of age at diagnosis with mortality. Among 3739 patients, the 3-year conditional overall survival increased annually by 7-10