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Lymph nodes can predict survival in patients with esophageal cancer

Press releases may be edited for formatting or style | July 30, 2019 CT Endoscopy X-Ray
Osaka, Japan - Optimal methods for predicting treatment efficacy in patients with esophageal cancer are seriously lacking. But now, researchers from Japan have found a useful alternative to existing methods for predicting patient outcomes.

In a study published this month in Annals of Surgery, researchers from Osaka University revealed that, compared with primary tumors, which are often used to assess treatment outcomes in many types of cancers, the response of lymph nodes to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is more effective in predicting disease recurrence and patient survival in individuals with esophageal cancer.

Although imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT) and endoscopy are often used to examine primary tumors in cancer patients, these techniques are not helpful when trying to measure primary tumors in the esophagus because of its shape. Thus, it is difficult for physicians to estimate recurrence and survival in patients with esophageal cancer. The research team attempted to address this issue by finding another indicator of patient outcome.
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"The frequency of lymph node metastases are very high particularly in advanced esophageal cancer compared with other gastrointestinal cancers," say lead authors Shinya Urakawa and Tomoki Makino. "Consequently, we reasoned that the response of lymph nodes might be more useful than that of primary tumors for predicting chemotherapeutic efficacy and patient prognosis. Accordingly, we aimed to determine the clinical utility of lymph node responses to NACT for predicting long-term survival in patients with metastatic esophageal cancer."

To do this, the researchers used CT to measure metastatic lymph nodes before and after NACT in individuals with metastatic esophageal cancer. They evaluated the chemotherapeutic response by monitoring the respective sizes of primary tumors and all metastatic lymph nodes that met a specific set of criteria.

"CT scans conducted before and after NACT demonstrated a high discordance in the response between primary tumors and metastatic lymph nodes in patients with esophageal cancer," explains Yuichiro Doki.

In fact, the researchers found that every lymph node showed a different response, even those in the same patient. Thus, it might be helpful to consider all metastatic lymph nodes to obtain a precise assessment of the NACT response.

"The lymph node response facilitated precise predictions of patient prognosis," says Urakawa and Makino. In addition to facilitating outcome predictions, this finding could contribute to the optimization of treatment strategies, and eventually lead to improved survival in patients with metastatic esophageal cancer.


The article, "Lymph node response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy as an independent prognostic factor in metastatic esophageal cancer," was published in Annals of Surgery.

About Osaka University
Osaka University was founded in 1931 as one of the seven imperial universities of Japan and now has expanded to one of Japan's leading comprehensive universities. The University has now embarked on open research revolution from a position as Japan's most innovative university and among the most innovative institutions in the world according to Reuters 2015 Top 100 Innovative Universities and the Nature Index Innovation 2017. The university's ability to innovate from the stage of fundamental research through the creation of useful technology with economic impact stems from its broad disciplinary spectrum.

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