Combined chemotherapy and surgery in primary small cell carcinoma of the esophagus.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to retrospectively analyze survival outcomes of surgery combined with chemotherapy in primary small cell carcinoma of esophagus.


METHODS
From January 2000 to December 2009, all patients with esophageal carcinoma who had undergone esophagectomy were selected from the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Henan Cancer Hospital, China. They were subjected to trans-left thoracic incision esophagectomy. For tumors located in the upper third thoracic esophagus, trans-right thoracic incision and abdomen incision esophagectomy was selected. We chose etoposide (EP) regimen for chemotherapy.


RESULTS
The percentage of pure esophagus small cell carcinoma (57 cases) in all patients who underwent esophagectomy was 1.1%. The median survival time was 45 months. In stage I, II, III, the survival rate was 25%, 5.9%, 4.3% respectively. In the subgroup analysis, overall median survival time of surgery was 23.2 months while the time of combined surgery and chemotherapy was 60.7 months (P<0.01). For stage I patients, combined therapy was associated with a significant longer median survival time (81.9 months) than surgery alone (22.3 months) (P<0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Systemic chemotherapy of cisplatin-based regimens should be considered as important treatment options to improve survival outcome, even early small cell esophageal cancer.
Department of Thoracic Surgery, Henan Cancer, Hospital and the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, P. R. China - jdlihn@hotmail.com.
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D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy / Q000379:methods; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D016629:Esophagectomy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome