15183 Background: 5 year survival rate of esophageal cancer in Japan reported to the Japanese Society for Esophageal Diseases from 1988 to 1994 (9,143 cases) was improved to 35.5% comparing to the rate of the beginning of 1980 which remained around 20%. This result was given by the increase of early cancer cases attributed to the progress of the ability of diagnosis, the improvement of the postoperative management, and the 3 field lymph node dissection introduced from the middle of 1980. Biological malignant potential and the modality of treatment for esophageal cancer in Japan differs from those in the United States. Methods: We studied clinicopathological characteristic and treatment results of 63 esophageal cancer patients in our institute from 1999 to 2005. Results: 63 patients consisted of 47 males and 16 females with mean age of 63.4±11.4. Out of 47 patients who underwent surgical treatment, 6 and 4 patients underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and chemotherapy, respectively. 15 patients without surgical treatment consisted of 12 patients, including one patient after endoscopical mucosal resection, undergoing chemoradiotherapy, 2 patients undergoing chemotherapy, and 3 patients undergoing radiotherapy, respectively. Most common histological type was squamous cell carcinoma (55 patients), followed by adenocarcinoma (3 patients), small cell carcinoma(3 patients), others(2 patients), and unknown(1 patients). There was 1 surgical treatment-related death. The major complications were SSI (18 patients), anastomotic leakage(7 patients) and recurrent nerve palsy (5 patients). The 2-year survival rate of patients with surgical resection was 68.1%, while the rate of the unresectable patients was 38.9%.Since 2002, we have adopted posterior mediastinal route as a prime choice, rather than retrosternal route. The median amount of blood loss, rate of complications and duration of post operative hospital stay of each routes are 650/415(ml), 65/45(%), 35/22(day), respectively. These results suggested that posterior mediastinal route showed superiority comparing to restrosternal route. Conclusions: Backed by these outcomes, we will aim to establish a logical strategy for esophageal cancer therapy which could accompany fewer complications, respect quality of life and prolong survival time. No significant financial relationships to disclose.
Reconstruction after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer: Retrosternal or posterior mediastinal route?
