The treatment strategy for recurrent or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is immunotherapy-based systemic treatment. The effect of local radiotherapy on the survival of recurrent or metastatic ESCC patients is unclear. This work is aimed to investigate the efficacy of local radiotherapy in combination with immunotherapy-based systemic therapy. In this retrospective observational study, data were collected from recurrent or metastatic ESCC patients treated at the Radiotherapy Department of Jiangsu Province Hospital between March 2019 and December 2022. This study enrolled a total of 73 patients with recurrent or metastatic ESCC. The overall survival (OS) of all patients and OS stratified by different treatment patterns were analyzed. Prognostic factors influencing OS were examined using uni- and multi-variate Cox tests. The median OS of the study population was 21.4 (95%CI: 13.7–29.1) months. The median OS of patients who received radiotherapy in additional to systemic therapy was 31.5 (13.5–49.5) months, while the patients who received systemic therapy alone had a significantly shorter median OS of 10.7 (95%CI: 8.0-13.4) months. OS was also significantly different among patients receiving different cycles of immunotherapy. The median OS of patients after 1–6 cycles of immunotherapy was 14.6 (95%CI: 11.3–18.0) months, that after 7–12 cycles was 21.1 (95%CI: 0-43.8) months, and that after more than 12 cycle was 52.1 (25.6–78.6) months. In the first-line therapy of recurrent or metastatic ESCC based on immunotherapy, the addition of local radiotherapy significantly improves patient survival. As the number of immunotherapy cycles increases, the survival benefits become more pronounced.
Yu et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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