Impact of Regional Lymph Node Irradiation on Reducing Lymph Node Recurrence in Esophageal Cancer Patients

Shigenobu Watanabe; Ichiro Ogino; Daisuke Shigenaga; Masaharu Hata

doi:10.21873/cdp.10098

Impact of Regional Lymph Node Irradiation on Reducing Lymph Node Recurrence in Esophageal Cancer Patients

Cancer Diagn Progn. 2022 Mar 3;2(2):223-231. doi: 10.21873/cdp.10098. eCollection 2022 Mar-Apr.

Authors

Shigenobu Watanabe¹, Ichiro Ogino¹, Daisuke Shigenaga¹, Masaharu Hata²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiation Oncology, Yokohama City University Medical Center, Yokohama, Japan.
² Department of Radiation Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan.

Abstract

Background/aim: To evaluate the preventive effects of regional lymph node irradiation on lymph node recurrence in esophageal cancer (EC).

Patients and methods: The study included 289 patients who received definitive radiotherapy for EC. The regional lymph node area of group 1 was determined as the area with the highest probability of lymph node metastasis and group 2 was determined as the area with the next highest probability of lymph node metastasis depending on the primary site of EC.

Results: The patients in whom group 2 was completely included in the irradiated field had a significantly lower rate of recurrence of regional lymph node metastasis than those in whom group 2 was not or insufficiently included (p=0.0337). There was no significant difference in overall survival (p=0.4627) or disease-specific survival (p=0.6174) between the two groups.

Conclusion: Regional lymph node irradiation did not have survival-prolonging effects but significantly reduced regional lymph node recurrence.

Keywords: Esophageal cancer; adverse events; preventative irradiation; regional lymph node recurrence.