Re-irradiation for oligo-recurrence from esophageal cancer with radiotherapy history: a multi-institutional study

Background: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy following surgery has recently become a standard therapy. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effectiveness and toxicity of re-irradiation for oligo-recurrence in lymph nodes from esophageal cancer treated by definitive radiotherapy or by surgery with additional radiotherapy.

Methods: We reviewed retrospectively 248 patients treated with (chemo)radiotherapy for oligo-recurrence in lymph nodes from esophageal cancer in five Japanese high-volume centers between 2000 and 2015. Thirty-three patients in whom re-irradiation was performed were enrolled in this study, and the results for patients in whom re-irradiation was performed were compared with the results for other patients.

Results: Median maximum lymph node diameter was 22 mm. Median total radiation dose was 60 Gy. The median calculated biological effective dose using the LQ model with α/β = 10 Gy (BED10) in patients in whom re-irradiation was performed was significantly lower than the median BED10 in others. There was no different factor except for BED10, histology and irradiation field between patients with a past irradiation history and patients without a past irradiation history. The median observation period in surviving patients in whom re-irradiation was performed was 21.7 months. The 3-year overall survival rate in the 33 patients with a past irradiation history was 17.9%, with a median survival period of 16.0 months. Overall survival rate and local control rate in patients with a past irradiation history were significantly worse than those in patients without a past irradiation history (log-rank test, p = 0.016 and p = 0.0007, respectively). One patient in whom re-irradiation was performed died from treatment-related gastric hemorrhage.

Conclusions: Results in the present study suggested that re-irradiation for oligo-recurrence in lymph nodes from esophageal cancer treated by definitive radiotherapy or by surgery with additional radiotherapy might be acceptable but unsatisfactory.