Effects of Preoperative Enteral Immunonutrition for Esophageal Cancer Patients Given Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy

Esophageal cancer ranks the fourth in mortality and the sixth in incidence among cancers in China according to the latest report of cancer epidemiology. Although the development of neoadjuvant therapy and radical esophagectomy have improved the prognosis of esophageal cancer patients, dysphagia and digestive tract reconstruction can cause malnutrition and infection-related complications. Postoperative enteral and parenteral nutrition have proved to be effective in improving outcomes after esophagectomy. However, whether to provide a preoperative nutritional support for patients with resectable esophageal cancer remains controversial.

This prospective randomized controlled trial will evaluate the effects of preoperative enteral immunonutrition in esophageal cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant therapy. The purpose of this study is to determine whether preoperative immune-modulating diet before surgery can improve the rate of complications and other perioperative outcomes.

The sample size is estimated with the hypothesis that preoperative immunonutrition during the neoadjuvant therapy can reduce postoperative nutrition and immune-related complications after esophagectomy. According to the previously published articles, the required sample size of interventional and control arm (ratio=2:1) was calculated as 137 cases and 69 cases to detect the reduction in related complications from 50% to 30% based on a bilateral significance level (α) of 0.05 and a power of test (1-β) of 0.80. Considering an estimated drop rate of 15%, the minimum sample size of this study is 244 patients, 162 cases in the interventional group and 82 in the control group. After signing the informed consent, every eligible participant will be randomized into either group based on a computer-generated random number. Blinding will not be applied to patients and surgeons due to the difficulty in clinical practice but outcomes assessor will be masked.

Inclusion criteria

• Histologically confirmed esophageal cancer
• Staging as cT2N0M0 with high-risk lesions (lymphovascular invasion, ≥3cm, poorly differentiated) / cT1b-2N+M0 / cT3-4aN0-3M0 with the need of neoadjuvant therapy before radical esophagectomy
• Tolerance with oral intake (at least fluid diet)
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status ≤2
• Body Mass Index (BMI) ≥ 18.5 kg/m2 before recruitment
• Patient's approval and written informed consent

Exclusion criteria

• Expected survival time less than 6 months
• Complete dysphagia
• Pregnant or breast-feeding women
• Unable to obey the interventions because of any reasons
• Serious co-morbidities (cardiac, pulmonary, liver, kidney, brain, hematologic, endocrine and other diseases) in patients who cannot tolerate neoadjuvant therapy and/or surgery
• History of previous thoracic or abdominal surgery
• History of other malignant tumor (previous or current)
• Patients with primary small cell carcinoma of the esophagus