Survival benefit of re-irradiation in esophageal Cancer patients with Locoregional recurrence: a propensity score-matched analysis

BACKGROUND: To investigate the treatment failure pattern and factors influencing locoregional recurrence of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and examine patient survival with re-irradiation (re-RT) after primary radiotherapy. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 87 ESCC patients treated initially with radiotherapy. Failure patterns were classified into regional lymph node recurrence only (LN) and primary failure with/without regional lymph node recurrence (PF). Patients received either re-RT or other treatments (non-re-RT group). Baseline covariates were balanced by a propensity score model. Overall survival (OS) and toxicities were assessed as outcomes. RESULTS: The median follow-up time was 87 months. Thirty-nine patients received re-RT. Failure pattern and re-RT were independent prognostic factors for OS (P = 0.040 and 0.015) by Cox multivariate analysis. Re-RT with concomitant chemotherapy showed no survival benefit over re-RT alone (P = 0.70). No differences in characteristics were found between the groups by Chi-square tests after propensity score matching. The Cox model showed that failure pattern and re-RT were prognostic factors with hazard ratios (HR) of 0.319 (P = 0.025) and 0.375 (P = 0.002), respectively, in the matched cohort. Significant differences in OS were observed according to failure pattern (P = 0.004) and re-RT (P < 0.001). In the re-RT and non-re-RT groups, 9.09% and 3.03% of patients experienced tracheoesophageal fistulas, and 15.15% and 3.03% of patients developed pericardial/pleural effusion, respectively (P > 0.05). The incidence of radiation pneumonitis was higher in the re-RT group (24.24% vs. 6.06%, P = 0.039), but no cases of pneumonia-related death occurred. CONCLUSIONS: Re-RT improved long-term survival in patients with locoregional recurrent ESCC. Despite a high incidence of radiation pneumonitis, toxicities were tolerable.