Predicting Early Tumor Recurrence in Patients With Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Prognosis for patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains poor. Surgery is one of the standard treatments for patients with ESCC who are considered to have a curative resection, however, approximately 40% of patients develop tumor recurrence within two years after surgery. The main cause of poor prognosis in ESCC patients undergoing surgery is postoperative tumor recurrence due to the presence of latent micro-metastases at the time of surgery. Even with today's advances in preoperative diagnostic techniques, predicting early tumor recurrence remains difficult due to the lack of established methods. Epigenetic markers, especially DNA methylation, are considered ideal markers for predicting cancer metastasis due to their cancer-specific methylation patterns, biological stability, and technical reproducibility. Our study aims to evaluate methylation of surgical specimens to assess residual disease and predict early recurrence.

Inclusion criteria

• Patients who had histologically confirmed ESCC.
• Patients who had undergone only complete esophagectomy with radical lymph node dissection without chemotherapy or radiotherapy before or after surgery.
• Patients for whom tissue samples are available
• Patients who were followed-up completely, with information on observation periods of at least 2 years after surgery.
• Written informed consent following full study information is provided to the patient.

Exclusion criteria

• Patients lacking clinical information within 2 years of surgery.
• Patients with multiple cancers.