Oncology reports
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Patients with deeply invading (T3-T4) oesophageal cancers usually receive chemoradiotherapy with or without surgery. However, the prognostic significance of pre-therapy and post-therapy lymph node (LN) status remains unclear. We studied 195 patients who received chemoradiotherapy for deeply invading oesophageal cancers (T3-4, N0-1, M0). ⋯ Multivariate analysis identified pre-therapy LN status and the number of involved LNs as the most important independent prognostic factors prior to histopathological tumour regression. In conclusion, pre-therapy LN status and the number of post-therapy involved LNs equally affect survival of patients who receive neo-adjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Control of systemic metastasis is required, based on pre- and post-therapy LN status.