SynthesisMedicine2018
Comparison of the effect of postoperative radiotherapy with surgery alone for esophagus squamous cell carcinoma patients: A meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- German guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of squamous-cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the esophagus-version 4.0.ESMO gastrointestinal oncology · 2025Review
- Survival benefits of postoperative radiotherapy in esophageal cancer during the immunotherapy era:a retrospective cohort study based on the SEER database and a single-center registry in China.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Article
- The Association between Neoadjuvant Radio-Chemotherapy and Prolonged Healing of Anastomotic Leakage after Esophageal Resection Treated with EndoVAC Therapy.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- LINC00473 contributes to the radioresistance of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by regulating microRNA‑497‑5p and cell division cycle 25A.International journal of molecular medicine · 2020Article
- Postoperative Radiotherapy for Thoracic Esophageal Carcinoma with Upfront R0 Esophagectomy.Cancer management and research · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThis meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of postoperative radiotherapy for patients having esophagus squamous cell carcinoma after radical surgery.
methodsA comprehensive research was performed in Pubmed, Embase and Cochrane Library electronic databases from inception until December 10, 2017. We collected all published full articles about comparison of surgery plus postoperative radiotherapy with surgery alone.
resultsFour randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) with 1050 participants and 8 non-randomized-controlled trials with 3248 participants were included and evaluated separately. The risk ratio rate and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Both RCTs and non-randomized-controlled trials (NRCTs) groups showed a significant increase in 3-year overall survival (OS) rate (RRRCT = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.80-0.99; RRNRCT = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.76-0.88) and decrease locoregional recurrence rate (RRRCT = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.43-0.66; RRNRCT = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.32-0.69) after postoperative radiotherapy compared with surgery alone. The 5-year OS rate in the group of NRCTs was markedly enhanced (RR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.82-0.92), while that of the RCTs group was not enhanced in a significant way (RR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.70-1.02). Subgroup analysis based on pathological lymph node status revealed that postoperative radiotherapy could improve OS regardless of pathological lymph node status (pathological lymph node positive patients: RR5-year os-RCT = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.70-0.93; RR5-year os-NRCT = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.80-0.94; Pathological lymph node negative patients: RR3-year os-RCT = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.59-0.96; RR3-year os-NRCT = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.30-0.89). No effect on distant recurrence rate was detected. Adverse effects induced by postoperative radiotherapy were comparatively modest and tolerable.
conclusionPolled results yielded that postoperative radiotherapy was promising in improving OS and reducing the locoregional recurrence rate. More large-scale up-to-date RCTs are needed to further validate the use of postoperative radiotherapy in modern practice.
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