Clinical features, outcomes and treatment-related pneumonitis in elderly patients with esophageal carcinoma

Table 1 Biological characteristics of tumors in elderly and non-elderly patients with esophageal carcinoma n (%)

Clinicopathological parameter	n	Non-elderly	Elderly	P
Gender				0.098
Male	180	93 (51.7)	87 (48.3)
Female	56	36 (64.3)	20 (35.7)
Tumor location				0.066
Cervical esophagus and upper thoracic portion	64	29 (43.3)	38 (56.7)
Mid-thoracic portion	49	61 (57.0)	46 (43.0)
Lower thoracic portion		39 (62.9)	23 (37.1)
Tumor type				0.000
Adenocarcinoma	31	27 (87.1)	4 (12.9)
Squamous cell carcinoma	205	102 (49.8)	103 (50.2)
Distant metastasis				0.021
M0	216	123 (56.9)	93 (43.1)
M1	20	6 (30.0)	14 (70.0)
Recurrence and metastasis after radiotherapy				0.008
Yes	143	88 (61.5)	55 (38.5)
No	93	41 (44.1)	52 (55.9)
Lymph node metastasis				0.000
N0	111	74 (66.7)	37 (33.3)
N1	125	55 (44.0)	70 (56.0)
TNM stage				0.002
I	101	68 (67.3)	33 (32.7)
II	83	37 (44.6)	46 (55.4)
III	32	18 (56.3)	14 (43.8)
IV	20	6 (30.0)	14 (70.0)

Tumor position was judged according to the esophageal tumor site segmentation criteria of the International Union for Cancer Control (1997 edition). Tumor stage was judged according to esophageal tumor tumor-node-metastasis staging criteria. TNM: Tumor, node, metastasis.

Table 2 Univariate analysis of prognostic factors

	n	Survival rate (elderly)			P	n	Survival rate (non-elderly)			P
		1 yr	3 yr	5 yr			1 yr	3 yr	5 yr
Gender					0.837					0.800
Male	93	66.5%	10.8%	2.2%		87	71.3%	12.7%	0.5%
Female	36	77.8%	8.3%	-		20	77.5%	5.3%	1.6%
Tumor type					0.878					0.039
Squamous	102	67.5%	11.2%	1.5%		103	74.8%	11.7%	0.3%
Non-squamous	27	75.9%	5.6%	0%		4	25.0%	-	-
Tumor location					0.360					0.212
Upper thoracic	29	72.4%	8.6%	4.3%		38	71.1%	17.5%	4.8%
Mid-thoracic	61	71.9%	12.1%	0%		46	67.4%	4.3%	-
Lower thoracic	39	62.8%	10.3%	-		23	87.0%	10.8%	-
Lymphatic metastasis					0.053					0.063
N0	74	77.0%	9.5%	1.0%		37	81.1%	18.5%	2.0%
N1	55	59.6%	9.3%	0.5%		70	68.6%	6.6%	0%
Distant metastasis					0.000					0.000
M0	123	71.4%	10.9%	1.7%		93	81.7%	12.9%	2.0%
M1	6	20.8%	-	-		14	14.3%	-	-
TNM stage					0.000					0.000
I	68	80.9%	11.8%	0.8%		33	84.8%	23.9%	5.1%
II	37	67.1%	11.2%	0.5%		46	91.3%	0.79%	-
III	18	44.0%	2.5%	0%		14	42.9%	-	-
IV	6	25.0%	-	-		14	14.3%	-	-
TRP					0.000					0.026
Yes	33	59.1%	0%	-		21	57.1%	-	-
No	96	72.8%	13.5%	2.2%		86	76.7%	13.1%	1.8%
TRP grade					0.000					0.047
II	20	81.0%	0%	-		14	64.0%	-	-
III	13	22.1%	-	-		7	42.9%	-	-
IV	0	-	-	-		0	-	-	-
Radiation dose					0.620					0.969
≤ 60 Gy	58	72.4%	10.3%	0%		54	70.4%	13.9%	0.5%
> 60 Gy	71	67.4%	10.4%	2.3%		53	75.5%	7.0%	1.5%

TNM: Tumor, node, metastasis; TRP: Treatment-related pneumonitis.

Table 3 Multivariate analysis of prognostic factors in the elderly and non-elderly esophageal carcinoma groups

Variable	Elderly		Non-elderly
	P	HR (95%CI)	P	HR (95%CI)
Pathological type	0.433	1.201 (0.759-1.901)	0.451	0.661 (0.224-1.944)
TRP	0.268	0.359 (0.059-2.199)	0.862	1.223 (0.126-11.838)
TRP grade	0.057	2.044 (0.980-4.261)	0.640	1.254 (0.486-3.235)
Distant metastasis	0.223	1.969 (0.662-5.861)	0.025	3.166 (1.155-8.679)
TNM stage	0.024	1.348 (1.040-1.748)	0.001	1.789 (1.271-2.517)

TNM: Tumor, node, metastasis; TRP: Treatment-related pneumonitis.

Table 4 Multivariate Cox regression analysis of prognostic factors in patients in whom treatment-related pneumonitis occurred

	B	SE	Wald	df	P	Exp(B)	95%CI for Exp(B)
							Lower	Upper
TRP grade	0.465	0.315	2.182	1	0.140	1.592	0.859	2.949
Lymph node metastasis	-0.459	0.461	0.989	1	0.320	0.632	0.256	1.561
Distant metastasis	-0.113	0.923	0.015	1	0.902	0.893	0.146	5.454
Tumor TNM stage	0.592	0.296	3.983	1	0.046	1.807	1.011	3.231
Radiation dose	-0.425	0.316	1.811	1	0.178	0.654	0.352	1.214

B: Regression coefficient; SE: Standard error; df: Degree of freedom; TNM: Tumor, node, metastasis; TRP: Treatment-related pneumonitis.