Comprehensive registry of esophageal cancer in Japan, 2014

Background The registration committee for esophageal cancer in the Japan Esophageal Society (JES) has collected the patients' characteristics, treatment, and outcomes annually. Methods We analyzed the data of patients who had visited the participating hospitals in 2014. We collected the data with a web-based data collection system using the National Clinical Database. We used the Japanese Classification of Esophageal Cancer 10th edition by JES and the TNM classification 7th edition by the Union of International Cancer Control (UICC) for cancer staging. Results A total of 9026 cases were registered from 344 institutions in Japan. Squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma accounted for 87.9% and 7.1%, respectively. The 5-year survival rates of patients treated using endoscopic resection, concurrent chemoradiotherapy, radiotherapy alone, and esophagectomy were 87.1%, 33.7%, 25.3%, and 59.3%, respectively. Esophagectomy was performed in 5204 cases. Concerning the approach used for esophagectomy, 48.1% of the cases were treated thoracoscopically. The operative mortality (within 30 days after surgery) was 0.75%, and the hospital mortality was 2.0%. The survival curves showed an excellent discriminatory ability both in the clinical and pathologic stages by the JES system. The survival of pStage IV was better than IIIC in the UICC system, because pStage IV included the patients with supraclavicular lymph-node metastasis (M1 LYM). Conclusion We hope that this report contributes to improving all aspects of diagnosing and treating esophageal cancer in Japan.

54 CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL FEATURES AND TREATMENT OUTCOMES OF ESOPHAGOGASTRIC JUNCTIONAL CARCINOMA TREATED WITH CURATIVE SURGERY

Compared to Western countries, Japanese esophagogastric junctional carcinoma (JC) demonstrates different epidemiologic backgrounds; squamous cell carcinoma is dominant over Barrett adenocarcinoma, and there is no consensus on surgical approach or dissection range of lymph node. JC is defined as the cancer, that is the center of the tumor is within 2 cm from the esophagogastric junction to the esophagus and stomach respectively by the Japanese Classification of Esophageal Cancer, 11th edition. Methods According to the definition, we examined the clinicopathological features and treatment outcomes of patients who underwent curative resection and pathologically defined as JC. From 2012 to 2019, 23 consecutive patients with JC who received with curative surgery in Shiga University of Medical Science Hospital were included. Clinicopathological classification was based on Japanese Classification of Esophageal Cancer, 11th edition. The patients consisted of 18 males and 5 females, median age was 68 (43–91) years old. Results Pathological diagnoses were 19 adenocarcinoma, 1 squamous cell carcinoma, 2 mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinoma (MANEC) and 1 malignant melanoma. Patients with Barrett’s esophagus were 7 cases (30.4%). Surgical procedure was esophagectomy via right thoracotomy 9 cases, esophagectomy via left thoracotomy 2 case and laparotomy 12 cases. Tumor invasion was pT1:6 (26.1%), pT2:3 (13.0%), pT3:5 (21.7%) and pT4:9 (39.1%). Lymph node metastases were observed in 16 cases (69.6%) and #1,2,3:15 cases (93.8%), #4,5: 3 cases (18.8%), #7,8a,9: 6 cases (37.5%), #19,20: 3 cases (18.8%) and #105–110: 5 cases (31.3%). Among 7 recurrence patients, peritonitis carcinomatosa was 4 cases. Conclusion In most positive lymph node metastasis cases, metastasis was observed in #1, 2 and 3 lymph nodes, but metastasis to the cervical lymph node was not observed. In the G, GE cases, right thoracotomy was not performed because there were no metastases to the upper mediastinal lymph nodes. These results suggested that surgical operation could be reduced to proximal gastrectomy for early G, GE cases. Future studies are necessary to further evaluate this result.

Dialyzer Classification and Mortality in Hemodialysis Patients: A 3-Year Nationwide Cohort Study

Background: Dialyzers are classified as low-flux, high-flux, and protein-leaking membrane dialyzers internationally and as types I, II, III, IV, and V based on β2-microglobulin clearance rate in Japan. Type I dialyzers correspond to low-flux membrane dialyzers, types II and III to high-flux membrane dialyzers, and types IV and V to protein-leaking membrane dialyzers. Here we aimed to clarify the association of dialyzer type with mortality.Methods: This nationwide retrospective cohort study analyzed data from the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy Renal Data Registry from 2010 to 2013. We enrolled 238,321 patients on hemodialysis who were divided into low-flux, high-flux, and protein-leaking groups in the international classification and into type I to V groups in the Japanese classification. We assessed the associations of each group with 3-year all-cause mortality using Cox proportional hazards models and performed propensity score matching analysis.Results: By the end of 2013, 55,308 prevalent dialysis patients (23.2%) had died. In the international classification subgroup analysis, the hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) was significantly higher in the low-flux group [1.12 (1.03–1.22), P = 0.009] and significantly lower in the protein-leaking group [0.95 (0.92–0.98), P = 0.006] compared with the high-flux group after adjustment for all confounders. In the Japanese classification subgroup analysis, the hazard ratios were significantly higher for types I [1.10 (1.02–1.19), P = 0.015] and II [1.10 (1.02–1.39), P = 0.014] but significantly lower for type V [0.91 (0.88–0.94), P < 0.0001] compared with type IV after adjustment for all confounders. These significant findings persisted after propensity score matching under both classifications.Conclusions: Hemodialysis using protein-leaking dialyzers might reduce mortality rates. Furthermore, type V dialyzers are superior to type IV dialyzers in hemodialysis patients.

A phase II study of perioperative capecitabine plus oxaliplatin for clinical SS/SE N1-3 M0 gastric cancer (OGSG1601).

203 Background: D2 gastrectomy followed by adjuvant S-1 is one of the standard therapy for the patients (pts) with stage III gastric cancer (GC) in Japan; however, the outcome is not satisfactory. We examined the efficacy of perioperative capecitabine and oxaliplatin (CapeOx) in pts with clinical SS/SE N1-3 M0 GC. Methods: The eligibility criteria included histopathologically confirmed clinical T3(SS)/T4a(SE) N1-3 M0 GC according to the Japanese Classification of GC (JCGC; 3rd English Edition). Three cycles of neoadjuvant CapeOx (NAC; capecitabine, 2,000 mg/m2 for 14 days; oxaliplatin, 130 mg/m2 on day 1, every 3 weeks) were administered, followed by five cycles of adjuvant CapeOx after D2 gastrectomy. The primary endpoint was the pathological response rate (pRR) according to JCGC ( ≥Grade 1b). Results: Thirty-seven pts were enrolled from April 2016 to May 2017, and fully evaluated for efficacy and toxicity. Thirty-three pts (89.2%) completed the planned three cycles of NAC and underwent gastrectomy, with an R0 resection rate of 78.4% (n = 29) and a pRR of 54.1% (n = 20, p = .058; 90% confidence interval [CI], 39.4–68.2) were demonstrated. The relative dose intensity (RDI) of capecitabine and oxaliplatin were 90.5% and 91.9%, respectively. Among 27 pts who initiated AC, 21 (63.6%) completed the treatment, and the RDI of capecitabine and oxaliplatin were 80.9% and 65.1%, respectively. Grade 3–4 toxicities during NAC included neutropenia (8%), thrombocytopenia (8%), and anorexia (8%) and during AC included neutropenia (37%), diarrhea (4%), and anorexia (4%), but no treatment-related death was reported. The overall survival (OS) rate and relapse free survival (RFS) rate at 3 years was 83.8% (95% CI, 72.7-96.5%) and 73.0% (95% CI, 60.0-88.8%), respectively. Subgroup analyses according to residual tumor after surgery (R status) showed a 3-year OS and RFS rate of 86.2% (95% CI, 74.5-99.7%) and 75.7% (95% CI, 63.0-90.8%) for R0. Conclusions: Perioperative CapeOx showed good feasibility and favorable prognosis with sufficient pathological response, although statistical significance at .058 did not reach the commonly accepted cutoff of .05. The data obtained using this novel approach warrant further investigations. Clinical trial information: 000021641.

Final results of a phase III trial to evaluate bursectomy for patients with subserosal/serosal gastric cancer (JCOG1001).

206 Background: We previously reported that the superiority of bursectomy was not demonstrated for subserosal(SS)/serosal(SE) gastric cancer by the second interim analysis performed with 54% of the expected events observed. We report the final 5-year follow-up data. Methods: Eligibility criteria included histologically proven adenocarcinoma of the stomach, cT3(SS) or cT4a(SE). Patients were intraoperatively randomized to non-bursectomy arm or bursectomy arm. Primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), and secondary endpoint was relapse-free survival (RFS). A total of 1,200 patients were required to detect a hazard ratio of 0.77 with a one-sided alpha of 5% and 80% power. Results: A total of 1204 eligible patients with cT3 / cT4a gastric cancer were randomized (602 in non-bursectomy arm, 602 in bursectomy arm, respectively). Patients’ background and operative procedures were well balanced between the arms. The 5y-OS were 76.5% (95% CI, 72.8 to 79.7) in non-bursectomy arm and 74.9% (71.2 to 78.2) in bursectomy arm. Hazard ratio (HR) for bursectomy was 1.03 (0.83-1.27, one-sided p = 0.598). The 5y-RFS were 70.7% (66.9 to 74.2) in non-bursectomy arm and 66.8% (62.9 to 70.5) in bursectomy arm [HR: 1.131 (0.93-1.38)]. HR for death was almost similar in all sub-categories (0.73-1.29) except cN2 (13th edition of Japanese Classification of Gastric Carcinoma); HR classified by cN was 1.06 (95% CI: 0.75-1.49) for cN0 (n = 521), 1.25 (0.92-1.71) for cN1 (n = 525), and 0.59 (0.32-1.06) for cN2 (n = 158) (p = 0.048 for interaction). The most frequent site of recurrence was the peritoneum [74 (12.3%) in non-bursectomy arm, 73 (12.1%) in bursectomy arm], and bursectomy arm showed a trend of increasing liver metastasis (n = 45, 7.5%) as compared with non-bursectomy arm (n = 33, 5.5%). Six independent poor prognostic factors were identified by multivariable analysis for OS: age ≥ 66 (vs. ≤ 65) (HR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.04-1.62), macroscopic type 3/5 (vs. type 0/1/2) (1.43; 1.15-1.79), total gastrectomy (vs. distal gastrectomy) (1.44; 1.03-2.02), pT3 (vs. pT1-2) (1.77; 1.17-2.676), pT4 (vs. pT1-2) (3.00; 1.99-4.53), pN1 (vs. pN0) (2.34; 1.52-3.59), pN2-3b (vs. pN0)(4.02; 2.82-5.74) and adjuvant chemotherapy (vs. without chemotherapy) (0.53; 0.42-0.67), but bursectomy was not significant (1.10 0.89-1.36). Conclusions: In the final analysis as well as in the interim analysis, bursectomy was not recommended as a standard treatment for cT3 or cT4 gastric cancer. Clinical trial information: UMIN000003688.

Outcomes of Definitive Chemoradiotherapy for Stage IVa (T4b vs. N4) Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Based on the Japanese Classification System: A Retrospective Single-Center Study

The differences in prognoses or progression patterns between T4b non-N4 and non-T4b N4 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma post chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is unclear. This study compared the outcomes of CRT for stage IVa esophageal squamous cell carcinoma according to T/N factors. We retrospectively identified 66 patients with stage IVa esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who underwent definitive CRT at our center between January 2009 and March 2013. The treatment outcomes, i.e., progression patterns, prognostic factors, and toxicities based on version 5.0 of the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, were studied. The patients (56 men and 10 women) had a median age of 67 (range: 37–87) years. The T/N classifications were T4b non-N4 (28/66), non-T4b N4 (24/66), and T4b N4 (14/66). Objective response was achieved in 57 patients (86.4%, (95% confidence interval, 74.6–94.1%)). There were no significant differences between the T/N groups in terms of overall survival, progression-free survival, and progression pattern. We found no significant differences in prognoses or progression patterns among patients with T4b non-N4, non-T4b N4, and T4b N4 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Thus, it seems impractical to modify CRT regimens based on T/N factors.