Preoperative Radiochemotherapy in Esophageal Squamous Cell Cancer with 5-Fluorouracil/Cisplatin or Carboplatin/Paclitaxel: Treatment Practice over a 20-Year Period and Implications for the Individual Treatment Modalities

SIMPLE SUMMARY: We retrospectively studied outcomes in patients treated with preoperative radiochemotherapy and surgery for esophageal squamous cell cancer. We put a special focus on the comparison of patients treated with 5-fluorouracil/cisplatin (‘Walsh’) or carboplatin/paclitaxel (‘CROSS’). First, the higher age and more comorbidities of ‘CROSS’ patients, along with a shorter intensive care/intermediate care unit stay, might reflect an improvement in supportive and surgical/perioperative procedures in the periods. Second, the ‘CROSS’ patients experienced more hematologic toxicity and were less likely to complete chemotherapy as per protocol. This indicates that efforts should be taken to guide patients through a toxic treatment regimen. Third, the negative prognostic impact of radiochemotherapy-related toxicities and the duration of the intensive care/intermediate care unit stay underlines that further optimization of treatment procedures remains an important goal. Toxicity profiles could be improved by tailoring the regimen to individual patients (e. g., careful use of the taxane-based regimen in elderly patients). ABSTRACT: We retrospectively studied outcomes in patients treated with preoperative radiochemotherapy and surgery for esophageal squamous cell cancer. We put special focus on the comparison of patients treated with 5-fluorouracil/cisplatin (‘Walsh’) or carboplatin/paclitaxel (‘CROSS’). We compared characteristics between patients treated according to ‘Walsh’ vs. ‘CROSS’. Cox regression was performed to test for an association of parameters with outcomes. Study eligibility was met by 90 patients. First, the higher age and more comorbidities of the ‘CROSS’ patients, along with a shorter intensive care/intermediate care stay, might reflect an improvement in supportive and surgical/perioperative procedures over the periods. Second, the ‘CROSS’ patients experienced more hematologic toxicity and were less likely to complete chemotherapy as per protocol. This indicates that efforts should be taken to guide patients through a toxic treatment regimen by supportive measures. Third, the negative prognostic impact of radiochemotherapy-related toxicities (i.e., dysphagia and hematologic toxicities) and the duration of the intensive care/intermediate care unit stay underlines that further optimization of treatment procedures remains an important goal. We found no differences in tumor downstaging and survival between treatment regimen. Toxicity profiles could be improved by tailoring the regimen to individual patients (e.g., careful use of the taxane-based regimen in elderly patients).