Outcome of surgical management of adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric junction

ABSTRACT

Adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction [AEG] is a challenging disease for the surgeon. Because of its borderline location, the choice of surgical strategy is controversial. Efforts are currently directed to select patients who may benefit from extensive resection. Therefore, we carried out this prospective study to evaluate the outcome of surgical treatment based on Siewert's classification. From January 2004 to December 2006, 36 patients with AEG underwent resection. The choice of surgical approach was based on the location of the tumor center. The treatment of choice was esophagectomy and proximal gastrectomy for type I tumors and extended gastrectomy and distal esophagectomy for type II and III tumors. The outcome of surgery and prognostic factors were analyzed. Fourteen out of the 36 AEG cases [39%] were diagnosed as having type I tumors, twelve [33%] had type II and 10 [28%] had type Ill AEG tumors. Esophagectomy with proximal gastreetomy was carried out in all patients with type I tumors. Eleven patients with type I tumors underwent transhiatal resection while 3 patients underwent transthoracic resection. All type III tumor patients underwent transabdominal resection by total gastrectomy with transhiatal resection of the distal esophagus. The extent of surgery for type II tumors was the same as type III however, ten patients had a transabdominal resection, while one patient had a thoracotomy and another patient underwent transhiatal esophagectomy. The overall 2-year survival rate was 33.3%. Survival rate was significantly associated with pT stage, pathological node-positive category and tumor stage. Postoperative 30-day mortality and morbidity rates were 30.5%, 36.1%; respectively. Siewert's classification provides a useful tool for selecting the surgical approach but should be tailored to individual patients to achieve R0 resection. Survival is still largely stage dependent and earlier diagnosis holds the key to improve prognosis