Surgery after induction chemoradiotherapy for oesophageal cancer.
OBJECTIVE
We discuss the role of surgery after induction chemoradiotherapy, when a complete response is apparent.


METHODS
We enrolled 247 consecutive patients who underwent chemoradiotherapy and oesophagectomy for cancer. Patients were classified in two groups as to whether they had chemoradiotherapy (n = 60) or not (n = 187) before surgery.


RESULTS
The 5-year survival rate of patients with complete response was 54% and was significantly higher than that of the other group (P = 0.018). Of the 60 patients responding, 34 (56.7%) were found to have a complete pathological tumour response (pT0). The overall sensitivity and specificity of the post-chemoradiotherapy restaging were 60.7% and 86.4%.


CONCLUSIONS
Complete response after induction chemoradiotherapy is not a reliable tool in the management of oesophageal cancer. We need to improve postchemoradiotherapy restaging to be sure that chemoradiotherapy will provide the same long-term survival rates as surgery.
Guillem
P
P
Department of Digestive and General Surgery, University Hospital, 59037, Lille, France.
Fabre
S
S
Mariette
C
C
Triboulet
J P
JP
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D016629:Esophagectomy; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate