• Qiuying An, Yuhao Su, Yajing Wang, Chanjun Zhen, Wenwen Bai, Liyuan Fu, Yibing Liu, Ping Zhang, and Zhiguo Zhou.
• From the Department of Radiation Oncology (An, Su, Wang, Zhen, Bai, Fu, Zhang, Zhou) and from the Department of Medical Oncology (Liu), The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Hebei Province, China.
• Saudi Med J. 2024 Aug 1; 45 (9): 900910900-910.

ObjectivesTo evaluate the outcomes of adjuvant radiotherapy in patients with esophageal cancer (EC) who underwent esophagectomy following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT).MethodsThe data of EC patients who received adjuvant therapy after NCRT between 2004 to 2019 was retrieved from the SEER database. The patients were split into the adjuvant radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy (RT±CT) and the adjuvant chemotherapy (CT) groups. The process of propensity score matching (PSM) was employed.ResultsFollowing PSM, 157 patients in total were recruited in each treatment group. There were no significant variations in either overall survival (OS) or cancer-specific survival (CSS) between the RT±CT and CT groups (median OS: 28 months versus. 51 months, p=0.063; median CSS: 31 months versus. 52 months, p=0.16). Within the CT group, patients with ypI/II or cI/II tumor stage, positive lymph node ratio (LNR) ≤0.1, and tumor size ≥50 mm (p<0.05) had higher OS compared to the RT±CT groups. Among patients with cT3-4 tumors in N-stage downstaging group, the OS and CSS were significantly greater for those underwent RT±CT as opposed to the CT group (5-year OS:56.6% versus 19.4%, p=0.042; 5-year CSS:67.9% versus. 19.4%, p=0.023). Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified the tumor histology grade as an independent prognostic factor of OS and CSS.ConclusionRadiotherapy-based adjuvant therapy does not significantly improve the prognosis of EC patients after NCRT, although it may provide a survival benefit for patients with cT3-4 tumors in N-stage downstaging.Copyright: © Saudi Medical Journal.

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