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The influence of venous thromboembolism on prognosis of esophageal cancer patients.
Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is sometimes found in esophageal cancer patients who underwent surgical treatment. VTE contains deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and catheter-related thrombosis. Our previous study revealed that pre-therapeutic plasma fibrinogen level, C-reactive protein level, adenocarcinoma histology and neck lymph node dissection are the risk factors for venous thromboembolism in patients[Surg Today, 2015]. However, the correlation between VTE and prognosis is not clear in esophageal cancer. We hypothesized that VTE may have an impact on prognosis of esophageal cancer patients. Methods: One hundred and seventy-two patients who underwent radical esophagectomy from March 2008 to December 2012 in our hospital were reviewed in this study. The existence of VTE was assessed from the neck to the pelvis with computed tomography at the initial visit and after neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and 6thpostoperative day. The patient and tumor characteristics, neo-adjuvant chemotherapy were compared between patients with VTE (VTE group) and those without VTE (non-VTE group). The primary outcome is disease-free survival (DFS) and the secondary outcome is overall survival (OS). Results: Twenty-one VTE events among 172 patients (12%) were observed. Six of which occurred preoperatively and were considered to be associated with NAC, 14 were detected postoperatively and one occurred just after inserting a peripherally inserted central catheter preoperatively. The VTE group and the non-VTE group have homogenous characteristics in patients’ backgrounds and tumor features. We found no significant difference in median DFS and OS between two groups. However, in patients with pathologically N 0 or 1(7thedition of UICC TNM classification, n = 157), the median DFS was significantly shorter in VTE group compared with non-VTE group (41 months versus 64 months, p = 0.04). The recurrence risk increased 50.9% in VTE group in comparison with non VTE group (p = 0.048). By using logistic regression analysis, we found that existence of VTE is an independent risk factor with Odd’s ratio 2.964 (p = 0.026). Conclusions: Our study suggests that VTE may be the risk factor for recurrence in esophageal cancer patients.