Prognostic significance of cancer within 1 mm of the circumferential resection margin in oesophageal cancer patients following neo-adjuvant chemotherapy.

OBJECTIVES: The prognostic significance of the circumferential resection margin (CRM) status in oesophageal cancer patients treated with neo-adjuvant chemotherapy and radical resection is controversial. Furthermore, it is currently unclear whether patients with cancer located at the CRM have a prognosis different from that of those with cancer within 1 mm of the CRM. This is the first study aiming to establish the optimal tumour-free distance from the CRM of an oesophagectomy in patients who have undergone neo-adjuvant chemotherapy.
METHODS: The clinicopathological data of 232 oesophageal cancer patients from two UK centres were analysed. The CRM status was classified as Group A (cancer at the CRM), Group B (cancer within 1 mm but not at the CRM) and Group C (no cancer within 1 mm from the CRM). The relationship between the CRM status and patient survival was investigated.
RESULTS: Thirty-eight specimens were classified as Group A, 89 as Group B and 105 as Group C. CRM status was related to the depth of tumour invasion (P < 0.001) and lymph node status (P < 0.001). The prognoses of the Group A and the Group B patients were similar. Both were poorer than that of the Group C patients (P = 0.008). Lymph node status was the only independent prognostic marker in multivariate analysis.
CONCLUSIONS: Oesophageal cancer patients treated with preoperative chemotherapy with cancer cells at the CRM or within 1 mm of the CRM of the resected specimen have a significantly worse survival than patients with no cancer cells within 1 mm of the margin. However, this study suggests that the overall prognostic significance of the CRM status is limited in this cohort and the postoperative lymph node status is the most important prognostic factor in oesophageal cancer patients treated with neo-adjuvant chemotherapy and surgery.