細谷 好則

Abstract Background Osteopenia reflects frailty and has been shown to be associated with outcomes in cancer patients. This study was undertaken to examine whether osteopenia is an independent prognostic factor in patients with esophageal cancer after resection. Methods A total of 214 patients who underwent surgery for esophageal cancer were analyzed retrospectively. Bone mineral density (BMD) of the 11th thoracic vertebra was measured by computed tomography scan, and patients classified into osteopenia and normal BMD groups with BMD <160 Hounsfield units as the cutoff. Clinicopathological data and prognosis were analyzed. Results The 5‐year survival rate was 55.4% for the osteopenia group and 74.7% for the normal BMD group with a significantly worse prognosis in the osteopenia group (p = 0.0080). In multivariable analysis, osteopenia was a significant independent risk factor associated with overall survival (hazard ratio [HR] 1.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.27–3.34, and p = 0.0151) along with R1/2 resection (HR 3.02, 95% CI 1.71–5.18, and p = 0.0002). Conclusion In patients with esophageal cancer undergoing resection, osteopenia may be a surrogate marker for frailty and an independent predictor of prognosis.

BACKGROUND: Adjuvant nivolumab therapy has become the standard therapy for patients with localized advanced esophageal cancer with non-pathological complete response after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by curative surgery. However, the necessity of this therapy for patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) with docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil (DCF) regimen followed by surgery is unclear, and the prognosis of grouping based on the presence or absence of pathological tumor and lymph node findings has not been analyzed. Therefore, our study aimed to address these questions. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included patients with cT1N1-3M0 and cT2-3N0-3M0 esophageal cancer according to the Japanese Classification of Esophageal Cancer, 11th edition, who received NAC with DCF followed by curative surgery between 2008 and 2020 at Jichi Medical University Hospital. We divided patients with ypT0-3N0-3M0 into four histological groups, namely ypT0N0, ypT+N0, ypT0N+, and ypT+N+, and we evaluated overall survival as the primary outcome and the prognostic relationship of lymph node metastasis as the secondary outcome. RESULTS: A total of 101 patients were included in this study. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the curves of the ypT0N0 and ypT+N0 groups were almost identical, while they differed from the other two groups. The hazard ratio of ypN+ was 4.44 (95% confidence interval: 2.03-9.71; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The prognosis of the ypT+N0 group after NAC with DCF followed by surgery was similar to that of pathological complete remission. Grouping patients according to pathological lymph node status is a reasonable predictor of prognosis.