Abstract
Background: To investigate the survival benefit of concurrent chemoradiotherapy for patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma during the years of intensity-modulated radiotherapy. Methods: Medical records of 1273 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who received intensity-modulated radiotherapy from January 2005 to December 2017 in the CAMS were retrospectively reviewed. 683 patients received concurrent chemoradiotherapy, 590 patients received radiotherapy alone. Propensity score matching (PSM) method was used to eliminate baseline differences between the two groups. Survival and toxicity profile were evaluated afterwards. Results: After a median follow-up time of 50.4 months (3.2-157.4 months), both overall survival and progression-free survival of the concurrent chemoradiotherapy group were better than those of the radiotherapy group, either before or after PSM. After PSM, the 1-, 3-, 5-year OS of radiotherapy and concurrent chemoradiotherapy groups were 63.3% vs 72.2%, 31.6% vs 42.2% and 28.5% vs 38.1%, respectively (p=0.003). The 1-year, 3-year and 5-year PFS rates of radiotherapy and concurrent chemoradiotherapy group were 44.3% vs 48.6%, 23.4% vs 31.2% and 15.8% vs 25.2%, respectively (p=0.002). The rates of ≥ grade 3 leukopenia and radiation esophagitis in the concurrent chemoradiotherapy were higher than those in the radiotherapy alone group (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in the probability of radiation pneumonia between the two groups (p=0.359). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed ≥ 70 years old, female, KPS ≤ 70, stage I-II, and patients diagnosed at earlier years (2005-2010) had lower probability of receiving concurrent chemoradiation (p<0.05). Multivariate Cox analysis indicated that female, stage I-II, EQD2≥60Gy and concurrent chemotherapy were favorable prognostic factors for both OS and PFS. Conclusions: Concurrent chemotherapy can bring survival benefits to patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma receiving intensity-modulated radiotherapy. For patients who cannot tolerate concurrent chemotherapy, radiation monotherapy is an effective alternative with promising results.
Radiation Dose Escalated Chemoradiotherapy Using Simultaneous Integrated Boost Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy for Locally Advanced Unresectable Thoracic Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Single Institutional Phase I Study