The prognostic value of 11th Japanese classification and 8th AJCC staging systems in Chinese patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Two staging systems, the 8th staging system by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and the 11th Japanese classification by Japan Esophageal Society (JES), are currently applied in the clinic for predicting the prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The differences between the two staging systems have been widely researched. However, little studies focus on the differences in specific staging between the two systems. Therefore, we aimed to compare the performance of different staging in predicting overall survival (OS) of Chinese patients with ESCC. METHODS: This retrospective study included 268 patients who underwent radical esophagectomy and mediastinal lymph node dissection for ESCC between January 2008 and December 2013. Patients were staged by the 8th AJCC and 11th JES staging systems. OS was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared between N stages and between stage groupings using the log-rank test. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to identify factors independently related to outcome. Further, we compared the concordance indexes (C-indexes) of the two staging systems. RESULTS: The mean age was 61.25 ± 7.056 years, median follow-up was 44.82 months, and 5-year OS rate was 47%. The OS was well predicted by the 8th AJCC N staging (P < 0.001) and the 11th JES N staging (P < 0.001), with a c-index of 0.638 (95% CI: 0.592-0.683) for AJCC N staging and 0.627 (95% CI: 0.583-0.670) for JES N staging (P = 0.13). In addition, the OS was also well predicted by stage groupings of the 8th AJCC (P < 0.001) and the 11th JES systems (P < 0.001), with a c-index of 0.658 (95% CI: 0.616-0.699) for 8th AJCC stage grouping and 0.629 (95% CI: 0.589-0.668) for the11th JES stage grouping (P = 0.211). CONCLUSIONS: The prognostic effect of 11th JES staging system is comparable with that of AJCC 8th staging system for patients with ESCC. Therefore, both systems are applicable to clinical practice.

Sensitivity value of hematological markers in patients receiving chemoradiotherapy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Hematological markers of the systemic inflammatory response (SIR) including the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and the combination of NLR with PLR (CNP) are associated with prognosis of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However, their value in predicting the sensitivity to chemoradiotherapy in patients with ESCC is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate whether these markers can be used as sensitivity predictors for chemoradiotherapy in patients with ESCC. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 114 patients with newly diagnosed ESCC were retrospectively evaluated. They were treated with curative intent by primary radiotherapy only or concurrent chemoradiotherapy. These patients were grouped for further analysis according to the optimum cutoff values of NLR, PLR, and CNP. A univariate analysis was conducted to compare the ability of each of the hematological markers of SIR and clinicopathological characteristics. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify whether the markers were associated with the sensitivity to chemoradiotherapy. The relationship between clinicopathological characteristics and hematological markers was assessed. RESULTS: NLR, CNP, T stage, M stage, and clinical stage were significantly associated with the sensitivity to chemoradiotherapy. In multivariate analysis, CNP and clinical stage were the independent risk factors predicting a poorer sensitivity. CONCLUSION: This study validated novel, easy-to-use hematological markers and found that CNP, an SIR score, is an independent hematological marker of poor sensitivity to chemoradiotherapy in patients with ESCC. This may help guide the planning of follow-up regimens.