Objectives To evaluate the effect of preoperative body mass index (BMI) on the perioperative and long-term results in esophageal squamous cell cancer patients. Method We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 503 patients with esophageal cancer between January 2001 and December 2009. There were 268 males and 235 females with the median age of 57 years ranging from 32-88 years. The associations between preoperative BMI and clinic patholo-gical characteristics were assessed by using the χ2 or Fisher's exact test. Survival analysis was performed by Kaplan-Meier curves with log-rank tests. ResultsThe 1-year, 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year overall survival rate for the entire cohort of patients was 64.0%, 49.0%, 43.0%, and 41.0% respectively. The occurance rates of weight loss, lymph node metastases, and poorly differentiated tumorigenesis represented statistically higher in patients with BMI≤18.5 kg/m2 than those in the patients with BMI>18.5 kg/m2 (P=0.026, P=0.006, P=0.048). For the cohort, the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed a significant trend toward a decreased survival in esophageal cancer patients with underweight (P=0.001). No statistical difference in overall complication, anastomotic leakage, and pulmonary complication rate was detected among the different BMI classes(P=0.162, P=0.590, P=0.376). Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that the drinking status, pathological stage, and underweight were the independent prognostic factors. ConclusionsAfter esophagectomy, BMI is not associated with the incidence of postoperative complications in patients. Patients with underweight are usually diagnosed with advanced stage, therefore tend to have poorer survivals than those with normal or over-weight.
ObjectiveTo investigate the prognostic survival status and influence factors for surgical treatment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in pathological stage T1b (pT1b).MethodsThe patients with ESCC in pT1b undergoing Ivor-Lewis or McKeown esophagectomy in Lanzhou University Second Hospital from 2012 to 2015 were collected, including 78 males (78.3%) and 17 females (21.7%) with an average age of 61.4±7.4 years.ResultsThe most common postoperative complications were pneumonia (15.8%), anastomotic leakage (12.6%) and arrhythmia (8.4%). Ninety-three (97.9%) patients underwent R0 resection, with an average number of lymph node dissections of 14.4±5.6. The rate of lymph node metastasis was 22.1%, and the incidence of lymph vessel invasion was 13.7%. The median follow-up time was 60.4 months, during which 25 patients died and 27 patients relapsed. The overall survival rate at 3 years was 86.3%, and at 5 years was 72.7%. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that lymph node metastasis (P=0.012, HR=2.60, 95%CI 1.23-5.50) and lympovascular invasion (P=0.014, HR=2.73, 95%CI 1.22-6.09) were independent risk factors for overall survival of pT1b ESCC.ConclusionEsophagectomy via right chest approach combined with two-fields lymphadenectomy is safe and feasible for patients with pT1b ESCC. The progress of pT1b ESCC with lymph node metastasis or lymphovascular invasion is relatively poor.