Background
Clinical staging of esophageal cancer has improved with PET/CT and endoscopic ultrasound. Despite such progress, small single center studies have questioned the reliability of clinical staging of T2N0 esophageal cancer. This study broadly examines the adequacy of clinical staging of T2N0 disease using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons database.
Methods
We retrospectively studied 810 clinical stage T2N0 patients from 2002-2011. There were 58 excluded because of incomplete pathologic staging data. Clinical stage, pathologic stage, and preoperative characteristics were recorded. Logistic regression analysis was utilized to identify factors associated with upstaging at the time of surgery.
Results
Among 752 clinical stage T2N0 patients, 35.9 %(270) received induction therapy prior to surgery. Of 482 patients that went directly to surgery, 27.4%(132) were confirmed as pathologic T2N0, 25.9%(125) were downstaged(i.e. T0-1N0), while 46.7%(225) were upstaged at surgery (T3-4N0 or TanyN1-3). Exclusive tumor upstaging(i.e. pathological T3-4N0) accounted for 18.2%(41), while exclusive nodal upstaging(i.e. pathological T1-2N1-3) accounted for 44.5%(100). Combined tumor and nodal upstaging(i.e. pathological T3-4N1-3) accounted for 37.3%(84). Among patients who received induction therapy, 38.1%(103) were upstaged vs. 46.7%(225) without induction therapy(p=0.026). Comparing the induction therapy group and the primary surgical group, postoperative 30-day mortality(3.7% vs. 3.7%, p=1.0) and morbidity(46.3% vs. 45%, p=0.76) were similar.
Conclusion
Despite advances in staging techniques clinical staging of T2N0 esophageal cancer remains unreliable. Recognizing T2N0 as a threshold for induction therapy in esophageal cancer, many surgeons have opted to treat T2N0 disease with induction therapy, despite the fact that one quarter of these patients will be pathological T1N0. While this study demonstrated similar perioperative morbidity and mortality with and without induction therapy, further study is needed to examine the impact of upstaging on long-term survival.