Esophageal carcinoma: long-term survival in consecutive series of patients through a retrospective cohort study

AIM The present study aimed to investigate the influence of histological factors on survival of patients with esophageal cancer. BACKGROUND Esophageal cancer is almost the common form of malignancy in the eastern world. PATIENTS AND METHODS Through a retrospective cohort study a consecutive series of 134 patients with definite diagnosis of esophageal cancer who had been hospitalized at the Towhid hospital, Sanandaj city, Kurdistan province western Iran during a five-year period from 2006 onward were recruited. The survival time of patients stratified by this grouping method were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression. RESULTS Overall, 127 males (55.1%), with a mean age of 65.38 ±11.62 years were included. Based on histological type of tumor, 23 patients (18.1%) had adenocarcinoma (AC) and 94 patients (74.0%) had squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Gender was not significantly associated with survival (Log rank =0.480). Location of tumor (log rank =0.014), histological type (log rank ≤0.001) and grade of tumor (log rank =0.008) had significantly influenced the survival rates variation. For patients at initial stages of the disease, the overall one-year, two years and five years survival rates were 73.2%, 52.8% and 31.2% respectively. For advanced stages, the survival ranged from 46.3% in the first year to 8.2% in the five years. The five-year survival rates (by year) were estimated to be 49%, 27%, 24%, 22% and 19% respectively. CONCLUSION Tumor grade, tumor deferential, clinical staging and location of the tumor were the prognostic factors for survival in patients with esophageal cancer.