What type of study is this?

September 10, 2025

Initial Experience of Minimally Invasive Esophagectomy for Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma as a Gastrointestinal Surgeon

Key Points

Initial experiences of minimally invasive esophagectomy show 3-year overall survival rates of 88%, 66%, and 69% for stages pI, pII, and pIII.
Among 72 patients treated, 18.1% faced complications classified as Clavien-Dindo grade III or higher, showing the need for improved surgical techniques.
Patients without neoadjuvant CCRT achieved 3-year overall survival rates of 100%, 65%, and 76% for stages pI, pII, and pIII, emphasizing the impact of treatment strategy.
Findings indicate acceptable outcomes for gastrointestinal surgeons performing minimally invasive esophagectomies, but complications like anastomotic leakage remain a concern.

Abstract

Abstract Background Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma showed relatively constant incidences with time in eastern countries. Operations for esophageal cancer have been performed by general thoracic surgeons (GTS) in Korea. But the number of GTS who perform esophageal surgery has decreased and most of surgeries are concentrated in several large centers. As a gastrointestinal surgeon, author started minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in a regional cancer center, and this might be the first analysis of surgical outcomes of MIEs which were performed by a gastrointestinal surgeon other than general thoracic surgeon in Korea. Methods We reviewed the data of seventy-two patients who underwent MIE in our hospital from Oct. 2018 to Oct. 2023, and the follow-up duration was between 5 months to 67 months (median: 37 months). Results Characteristics of patients are shown in Fig. 1. There was one death within 30 days, and the incidence of complications classified as Clavien-Dindo grade III or higher was 18.1%. Three-year overall survival (3 yr-OS) of all patients according to pI, pII, and pIII were 88%, 66%, and 69%, and three-year disease-free survival (3 yr-DFS) according to pI, pII, and pIII were 86%, 75%, and 53%, respectively. 3 yr-OS of patients without neoadjuvant CCRT according to the pI, pII, and pIII were 100%, 65%, and 76%, and 3 yr-DFS of all patients according to the II, pII, and pIII were 100%, 86%, and 69%, respectively. Conclusion Present analyses of initial experiences of MIE performed by gastrointestinal surgeon show acceptable survival of patients with excellent survival in pT1N0M0 patients without neoadjuvant CCRT. But more detailed efforts seem necessary to reduce surgery-related complications such as anastomotic leakage. Video Descrption

Ask AI

Mark Helpful

Bookmark

Relay