Prognostic similarities and differences in optimally resected liver metastases and peritoneal metastases from colorectal cancers.

PURPOSE: To analyze and compare survival in patients operated for colorectal liver metastases (LM) with that in patients optimally resected for peritoneal metastases (PM). PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study concerns 287 patients with LM and 119 patients with PM treated with surgery plus chemotherapy between 1993 and 2009, excluding patients presenting both LM and PM. RESULTS: Mortality (respectively, 2.7% and 4.2%), morbidity (respectively, 11% and 17%), and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates (respectively, 38.5% and 36.5%) were not statistically different between the LM group and the PM group. Multivariate analysis showed that the extent of the disease was the main prognostic factor, which led us to divide the population into 5 subgroups. The best 5-year OS rate (72.4%) was obtained in patients with minimal peritoneal disease [peritoneal cancer index (PCI) ≤5]. OS was similar for the patients with less than 10 LM and those with a PCI between 6 and 15 (respectively, 39.4% and 38.7%). Five-year OS was lower in patients with more than 10 LM (18.1%), and dramatically low for patients with a PCI > 15 (11.8%). CONCLUSIONS: This study underlines the prognostic impact of the tumor burden in metastatic colorectal disease. In selected patients, similar survival rates can be obtained after optimal treatment of LM and PM. As the role of optimal surgical resection of LM is widely accepted, our results confirm that an optimal attitude should also be adopted to treat PM with a PCI < 16, particularly in patients with very low PCI (<5) where survival could be better than LM.

Impact of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy on postoperative outcomes after esophageal cancer resection: results of a European multicenter study.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) on anastomotic leakage (AL) and other postoperative outcomes after esophageal cancer (EC) resection. BACKGROUND: Conflicting data have emerged from randomized studies regarding the impact of NCRT on AL. METHODS: Among 2944 consecutive patients operated on for EC between 2000 and 2010 in 30 European centers, patients treated by NCRT after surgery (n=593) were compared with those treated by primary surgery (n=1487). Multivariable analyses and propensity score matching were used to compensate for the differences in some baseline characteristics. RESULTS: Patients in the NCRT group were younger, with a higher prevalence of male sex, malnutrition, advanced tumor stage, squamous cell carcinoma, and surgery after 2005 when compared with the primary surgery group. Postoperative AL rates were 8.8% versus 10.6% (P=0.220), and 90-day postoperative mortality and morbidity rates were 9.3% versus 7.2% (P=0.110) and 33.4% versus 32.1% (P=0.564), respectively. Pulmonary complication rates did not differ between groups (24.6% vs 22.5%; P=0.291), whereas chylothorax (2.5% vs 1.2%; P=0.020), cardiovascular complications (8.6% vs 0.1%; P=0.037), and thromboembolic events (8.6% vs 6.0%; P=0.037) were higher in the NCRT group. After propensity score matching, AL rates were 8.8% versus 11.3% (P=0.228), with more chylothorax (2.5% vs 0.7%; P=0.030) and trend toward more cardiovascular and thromboembolic events in the NCRT group (P=0.069). Predictors of AL were high American Society of Anesthesiologists scores, supracarinal tumoral location, and cervical anastomosis, but not NCRT. CONCLUSIONS: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy does not have an impact on the AL rate after EC resection (NCT 01927016).