PURPOSE: To describe patterns of recurrence of elective nodal irradiation (ENI) in definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC) using 3D-conformal radiotherapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: One hundred and twenty-six consecutive patients with stages I-IVB thoracic esophageal SqCC newly diagnosed between June 2000 and July 2009 and treated with 3D-CRT in our institution were recruited from our database. Definitive CRT consisted of two cycles of nedaplatin/5FU repeated every 4 weeks, with concurrent radiation therapy of 50-50.4 Gy in 25-28 fractions. Until completion, radiotherapy was delivered to the N1 and M1a lymph nodes as ENI in addition to gross tumor volume. RESULTS: All 126 patients were included in this analysis, and their tumors were staged as follows: T1/T2/T3/T4, 28/18/54/26; N0/N1, 50/76; M0/M1a/M1b, 91/5/30. The mean follow-up period for the 63 surviving patients was 28.3 (±22.8) months. Eighty-seven patients (69%) achieved complete response (CR) without any residual tumor at least once after completion of CRT. After achieving CR, each of 40 patients experienced failures (local=20 and distant=20) and no patient experienced elective nodal failure without having any other site of recurrence. The upper thoracic esophageal carcinoma showed significantly more (34%) relapses at the local site than the middle (9%) or lower thoracic (11%) carcinomas. The 2-year and 3-year overall survival was 56% and 43%, respectively. The 1-year, 2-year and 3-year disease-free survival was 46%, 38% and 33%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In CRT for esophageal SqCC, ENI was effective for preventing regional nodal failure. The upper thoracic esophageal carcinomas had significantly more local recurrences than the middle or lower thoracic sites.
PURPOSE: To describe patterns of recurrence of elective nodal irradiation (ENI) in definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SqCC) using 3D-conformal radiotherapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: One hundred and twenty-six consecutive patients with stages I-IVB thoracic esophageal SqCC newly diagnosed between June 2000 and July 2009 and treated with 3D-CRT in our institution were recruited from our database. Definitive CRT consisted of two cycles of nedaplatin/5FU repeated every 4 weeks, with concurrent radiation therapy of 50-50.4 Gy in 25-28 fractions. Until completion, radiotherapy was delivered to the N1 and M1a lymph nodes as ENI in addition to gross tumor volume. RESULTS: All 126 patients were included in this analysis, and their tumors were staged as follows: T1/T2/T3/T4, 28/18/54/26; N0/N1, 50/76; M0/M1a/M1b, 91/5/30. The mean follow-up period for the 63 surviving patients was 28.3 (±22.8) months. Eighty-seven patients (69%) achieved complete response (CR) without any residual tumor at least once after completion of CRT. After achieving CR, each of 40 patients experienced failures (local=20 and distant=20) and no patient experienced elective nodal failure without having any other site of recurrence. The upper thoracic esophageal carcinoma showed significantly more (34%) relapses at the local site than the middle (9%) or lower thoracic (11%) carcinomas. The 2-year and 3-year overall survival was 56% and 43%, respectively. The 1-year, 2-year and 3-year disease-free survival was 46%, 38% and 33%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In CRT for esophageal SqCC, ENI was effective for preventing regional nodal failure. The upper thoracic esophageal carcinomas had significantly more local recurrences than the middle or lower thoracic sites.