Preoperative therapy with insufficient effectiveness is related to unfavorable prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

The disadvantage brought by the preoperative therapy with insufficient effe ctiveness for the patients with esophageal carcinoma has not been previousl y investigated. The aim of the current study was to show that the prognosis of patients with advanced esophageal carcinoma treated with preoperative t herapy with insufficient effectiveness may be rather more unfavorable than that of patients without preoperative therapy. The subjects were 406 patien ts with esophageal squamous cell carcinomas of depth reaching to muscularis propria or adventitia but not to neighboring structures, who had been trea ted with esophagectomy and reconstruction. Although the proportions of lymp hatic invasion and venous invasion in patients treated with preoperative th erapy of insufficient effect were lower than those of patients without preo perative therapy, the 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates in the former (62.2% , 32.0% and 23.1%, respectively) was significantly lower than in the latter (78.5%, 57.3% and 39.7%, respectively, p=0.01). A preoperative therapy wit h insufficient effectiveness may bring a more unfavorable prognosis of pati ents with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.