Table 2.
Details on treatment regimen and pathological assessment of the resection specimen of 381 patients, divided into the CROSS (n = 208) and post-CROSS (n = 173) cohorts for patients with oesophageal or junctional cancer who underwent chemoradiotherapy according to CROSS followed by surgery
| CROSS | Post-CROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N (%) | N (%) | p value | ||
| Total | 208 | 173 | ||
| Chemotherapy | < 5 cycles | 4 (2) | 6 (4) | 0.348 |
| 5 cycles | 204 (98) | 167 (96) | ||
| Radiotherapy | < 23 cycles | 2 (1) | 0 (0) | 0.196 |
| 23 cycles | 206 (99) | 173 (100) | ||
| Weeks between end of nCRT and surgery | Mean [SD] | 6.6 [0.1] | 7.9 [0.3] | < 0.001 |
| ≤ 6 | 95 (46) | 48 (28) | < 0.0001 | |
| > 6 | 113 (54) | 125 (72) | ||
| Surgical approach | Transthoracic | 92 (44) | 89 (52) | 0.734 |
| Transhiatal | 116(56) | 56 (33) | ||
| Othera | 0 (0) | 28 (16) | ||
| Resection margins | R0 | 195 (94) | 159 (92) | 0.486 |
| R1 | 13 (6) | 14 (8) | ||
| ypT stageb | T0 | 71 (34) | 57 (33) | 0.65 |
| T1 | 29 (14) | 25 (14) | ||
| T2 | 41 (20) | 30 (17) | ||
| T3 | 64 (31) | 60 (35) | ||
| T4 | 2 (1) | 1 (1) | ||
| Missing | 1 (0) | 0 (0) | ||
| ypN stageb | N0 | 144 (69) | 108 (62) | 0.22 |
| N1 | 45 (22) | 51 (29) | ||
| N2 | 15 (7) | 9 (5) | ||
| N3 | 4 (2) | 5 (3) | ||
| LN ratio | Mean [SD] | 0.065 [0.142] | 0.046 [0.092] | < 0.0001 |
| Pathological complete responsec | T0N0M0 | 56 (27) | 49 (28) | 0.76 |
| Differentiation grade | Poor | 26 (12) | 53 (31) | < 0.0001 |
| Moderate | 26 (12) | 49 (28) | ||
| Good | 1 (1) | 3 (2) | ||
| Unknown, including pCR | 155 (75) | 68 (40) |
CROSS ChemoRadiotherapy for Oesophageal cancer followed by Surgery Study, nCRT neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, SD standard deviation, R0 tumor-free resection margin, R1 tumor cells within 1 mm or at the resection margin, ypT stage T stage after nCRT, ypN stage N stage after nCRT, pCR pathologically complete response, LN ratio ratio of positive/resected lymph nodes divided by the number of resected lymph nodes (between 0 and 1)
aOther approaches, including minimally invasive esophagectomy and left thoracoabdominal approach
bPathological T and N stage after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy
cPathologically complete response (ypT0N0M0)