designed the study, obtained research funds, performed data collection, analysis and interpretation of data, and wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. Yasuhiro Shirakawa, Shunsuke Tanabe, and Toshiyoshi Fujiwara contributed to the analysis and interpretation of data from the perspective of esophageal surgeons and assisted in the preparation of the manuscript. Mami Inoue-Minakuchi and Aya Yokoi contributed to data collection, analysis and interpretation of data, and assisted in the preparation of the manuscript. Misato Muro and Hirotaka Kosaki contributed to data collection.
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