Difference in failure patterns of pT3-4N0-3M0 esophageal cancer treated by surgery vs surgery plus radiotherapy

Figure 1 Patient selection flow chart. ESCC: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; PORT: Postoperative radiotherapy.

Figure 2 Details of the failure patterns for the two arms. The Y axis represents the number of patients. The most common regions for locoregional recurrence were the supraclavicular and mediastinal lymph nodes (29.5% and 48.3%, respectively) for the surgery cohort. For the S + R arm, supraclavicular lymph nodes (9 of 17 patients) were the most common relapse region after postoperative radiotherapy.

Figure 3 Disease-free survival (174 vs 56) of patients in the two arms. The Y axis represents disease-free survival (DFS) rate. The median DFS rates of the S and S + R arm were 8.0 and 12.7 mo, respectively.

Figure 4 Univariate analysis. The Y axis represents disease-free survival rate. Patients with fewer than two lymph nodes involved could achieve a better disease-free survival.