Esophagectomy is the standard adjuvant treatment for superficial esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SESCC) following noncurative endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). However, recent reports have also shown that ESD with adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) has promising results. This retrospective study aimed to elucidate the efficacy of CRT compared to surgery in patients with SESCC after noncurative ESD.

This study retrospectively compared the long-term outcomes of patients who received adjuvant treatment with surgery or CRT after noncurative ESD for SESCC.

Data were collected from 60 patients who developed SESCC after noncurative ESD, 34 of whom received adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and 26 underwent esophagectomy. The median follow-up periods were 46 and 56 months in the CRT and esophagectomy groups, respectively. The median patient age was significantly higher in the CRT group than in the esophagectomy group (69 vs. 65 years, p = 0.0054). CRT was completed in all patients, and the incidence of grade ≥ 3 nonhematologic adverse events was 6%. The overall and disease-free survival did not significantly differ between the two groups.

CRT following ESD seems a promising nonsurgical strategy for optimizing the selection of therapies for high-risk SESCC and warrant further investigation.