Evaluating Long-term Efficacy of Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy Plus Surgery for the Treatment of Locally Advanced Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

To the Editor Yang and colleagues¹ conducted an important study for assessing patients’ long-term benefit from neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) plus surgery vs surgery alone. The primary end point was overall survival (OS) in the intention-to-treat population. The hazard ratio (NCRT/surgery vs surgery) was 0.74 (95% CI, 0.57-0.97; P = .03) favoring NCRT/surgery. To quantify the long-term OS benefit, the authors also reported 5-year survival rates, which were 59.9% (95% CI, 52.9%-66.1%) and 49.1% (95% CI, 42.3%-55.6%) for NCRT/surgery and surgery, respectively. Based on these summaries, the authors concluded that NCRT plus surgery improved the long-term OS over surgery alone among patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.