Original Article


Dysphagia predict the response to second cycle neoadjuvant chemotherapy in first cycle no response esophageal carcinoma

Yan Zheng, Yin Li, Jianjun Qin, Wenqun Xing, Xianben Liu, Haibo Sun, Xiankai Chen

Abstract

Background: After the first-cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), many patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) experience a stable disease (SD)/progressive disease (PD) response. Clinically, SD patients are recommended to receive a second cycle of NAC, and PD patients are recommended to undergo surgery if possible. However, we found some PD tumors shrank after a second-cycle of NAC. Some first-cycle SD patients may develop PD after second-cycle NAC and lose the chance of surgery. Thus, how to predict the response to second-cycle NAC for first-cycle SD/PD patients is important for clinical practice.
Methods: This retrospective single-center study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University/Henan Cancer Hospital. We retrospectively reviewed patients with ESCC who had NAC and evaluated SD by computed tomography (CT) scan after the first-cycle between March 9, 2013 and October 24, 2016. Univariate and multivariate analyses of the clinical parameters were performed to identify markers predictive of a clinically response by using IBM-SPSS version 23.
Results: There were 64 patients included in the study. Thirty-one first-cycle NAC-SD/PD patients (48.4%) showed a response after second-cycle NAC, which was significantly correlated with alleviated dysphagia (P=0.006) and smoking (P=0.025). In the multivariate analyses, alleviated dysphagia [odds ratio (OR) 3.978; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.335–11.856; P=0.013] was identified as the only independent predictive factor for tumor response after second-cycle of NAC for first-cycle SD/PD patients.
Conclusions: Alleviated dysphagia might be a useful factor to predict the response to second-cycle NAC for first-cycle SD/PD patients.

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