Patterns of failure and clinical outcomes of radiotherapy for cervical esophageal carcinoma / 中华放射医学与防护杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To review the failure patterns and clinical outcomes for patients with cervical esophageal carcinoma (CEC) undergoing definitive radiotherapy (RT).Methods Medical records,clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with CEC treated by definitive RT from August 2008 to May 2017 were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed.Results A total of 97 patients with squamous cell CEC were enrolled in this study with a median age of 59 years old (range 18-78 years old).There were 34 patients with limited cervical esophagus,and 63 patients with diseases beyond cervical region,respectively.There were 69,7,and 6 patients with Bronchi invasion,thyroid lobes involvement and aortic involvement,respectively.There were 11,80 and 6 patients with stage Ⅱ,Ⅲ and Ⅳ (non-regional lymph node metastases),respectively.The median dose to the gross tumor volume (GTV) was 66 Gy,in which 46 patients received above 66 Gy and 51 patients received less than 66 Gy,respectively.The median progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 16.03 and 23.30 months,respectively,with a median follow-up of 14.90 months.The 1,2,3-year PFS and OS were 56.86％,30.35％,26.34％,and 72.54％,47.94％,40.81％,respectively.Sixty-one patients had treatment failure at their last follow-up,in which 40,27,and 18 patients developed local failure,regional failure,and distant metastasis,respectively.Univariate analysis revealed that thyroid lobes involvement resulted in lower PFS (x2 =5.773,P＜0.05) and OS (x2 =13.461,P＜0.05),and bronchi involvement (x2 =4.283,P＜0.05) was associated with lower OS.Multivariate analysis indicated that aortic involvement and thyroid lobes involvement were associated with lower PFS (x2 =6.796,4.548,P＜0.05) and OS (x2 =13.421,10.581,P＜0.05),and GTV dose above 66 Gy was associated with higher OS (x2=5.296,P＜0.05).Conclusions Local-regional recurrence was the main failure pattern for patients with CEC after definitive RT.Aortic,thyroid lobes,and/or bronchi involvement were associated with poor prognosis,and GTV dose ≥66 Gy tended to improve OS.Prospective studies with larger population were needed to further confirm this study.