Various clinical outcomes in patients with esophageal or gastroesophageal junction (E-GEJ) adenocarcinoma undergoing trimodality therapy: Prognostic implications.
120 Background: Preoperative chemoradiation (trimodality therapy) has the strongest evidence in trimodality-eligible patients with E-GEJ adenocarcinoma. Pathological complete response (pathCR) and clinical complete response (clinCR) are favorable prognostic factors. We hypothesized that pathCR is associated with best prognosis. Methods: Patients with E-GEJ adenocarcinoma undergoing trimodality therapy were identified from the prospectively maintained databases at our institution. Multiple statistical methods were used. Results: For 314 esophageal cancer patients, the median follow-up time was 44.0 months (95% CI; 34.2-50.9). 107 of 314 patients died at this analysis. 80 patients (25.5%) had a pathCR. 160 patients (51.0%) had a clinCR prior to surgery but did not have pathCR. The remaining 74 (23.6%) had <pathCR and <clinCR. Median OS were: not achieved in pathCR patients, 82.8 months (95% CI; 63.9, NA) in clinCR patients and 27. 6 months (95% CI; 19.4, NA) <pathCR/<clinCR (p<0.001). The median recurrence-free survival (RFS) were: 79.6 months (95% CI; 37.4, NA) in pathCR patients, 67.4 months (95% CI; 31.8, NA) in clinCR patients and 13.5 months (95% CI; 10.4, 21.4) in <pathCR/<clinCR (p<0.001). In multivariate analysis, no lymph node metastasis (p<0.001), not poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (p=0.002) and pathCR (p=0.02), and cCR (p<0.001) were independent prognosticators of OS and RFS. Conclusions: pathCR and clinCR are independent prognosticators (pathCR producing the best results) and may be helpful in devising new therapeutic and surveillance strategies.