Many studies have demonstrated that chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery (CRTS) prolongs the 5-year survival rate of resectable esophageal carcinoma patients. However, the effect of CRTS on postoperative complications, local recurrence and distant metastasis remains controversial. We performed a systematic review of the literature and conducted a meta-analysis to assess the postoperative efficacy of CRTS compared with surgery alone (SA).

A phase II study was performed to investigate the safety and efficacy of weekly doses of combined paclitaxel and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) with concurrent radiation therapy, followed by 2 cycles of consolidation chemotherapy to treat patients with advanced oesophageal carcinoma. The eligibility criteria included local, advanced, newly diagnosed and postoperative local regional lymph node metastasis; an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score of ≤ 2; and adequate organ function. Patients received chemoradiotherapy consisting of radiotherapy (50.4 Gy/28 Fx or 61.2 Gy/34 Fx) and concurrent paclitaxel (50 mg/m2) and 5-FU (300 mg/m2) for 96 h on days 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29. The two-cycle consolidation chemotherapy protocol included paclitaxel (175 mg/m2) plus continuously infused 5-FU (1800 mg/m2) for 72 h administered on days 57 and 85, after concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Between February 2012 and August 2013, 53 patients with oesophageal carcinoma were enrolled in the study. Among these patients, 33 (62.2%) were newly diagnosed and 20 (37.7%) had postoperative local regional lymph node metastasis. The median overall survival (OS) time was 17.9 months (95% CIs = 11.9-23.9), and the median progression-free survival (PFS) time was 12.4 months (95% CIs = 8.6-16.1). Approximately 84.9% (45/53) and 50.9% (27/53) of the patients completed ≥ 5 cycles and all 7 cycles of chemotherapy, respectively. Approximately 86.7% (46/53) of patients completed radiation therapy. The 1-, 2-, and 3-year OS rates were 66.0%, 37.7%, and 35.8%, respectively. The 1-, 2-, and 3-year local control rates were 76.9%, 66.4%, and 66.4%, respectively. Seventeen patients (32%) experienced grade 3 or higher toxicity. Grade 3 to 5 toxicity during chemoradiotherapy included neutropaenia (7.5%), thrombocytopaenia (1.8%), fatigue (7.5%), anaemia (1.8%), dermatitis radiation (1.8%), pneumonitis (5.6%), oesophagitis (9.4%) and vomiting (3.7%). The combination of weekly doses of paclitaxel and 5-FU was well tolerated and produced comparable results among patients with locally advanced oesophageal cancer. A randomised phase III trial (NCT01591135) comparing paclitaxel plus 5-FU with cisplatin plus 5-FU is on-going at our hospital.

Research on the genomic characteristics of common esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cell lines, including exome mutations and mRNA expression, is limited. This study aims to elucidate the malignancy, invasion capability, classical cancer-related signaling pathways, and immune status of ESCC cell lines, providing a detailed genomic landscape and highlighting the unique features of each cell line. Whole exome and RNA sequencing were conducted on ESCC cell lines TE-1, ECA-109, KYSE-30, KYSE-150, KYSE-180, KYSE-450, and KYSE-510, with the normal epithelium cell line Het-1a as a comparison. Bioinformatics methods analyzed gene mutation types, mutation frequencies, RNA expression, and classical cancer-related signaling pathways. Specific analyses were also performed on tumor burden, genes related to differentiation, invasion, immunity, and gene enrichment in each cell line. The highest tumor mutation burden (TMB) was 70.4 mutations per megabase (mut/MB) in KYSE-150, while the lowest was 48.7 mut/MB in KYSE-510. Mutations in the Hippo, Notch, PI3K, RTK-Ras, and Wnt signaling pathways were present in all cancer cell lines. Mutations were significantly enriched in signature 3, associated with defective homologous recombination deficiency (HRD). The NRF2 signaling pathway exhibited mutations in KYSE-180, KYSE-450, and TE-1 cell lines. The cell cycle gene mutation frequency was low, occurring only in KYSE-30 and TE-1 cell lines. The expression profiles of KYSE-510 and ECA-109 were similar. The KYSE-150 cell line showed up-regulated invasion genes, while the KYSE-450 cell line had significantly down-regulated poor differentiation-related genes. Immune-related genes were up-regulated in the ECA-109 cell line. The molecular profiles generated in this study provide detailed information on gene mutations and expression in common ESCC cell lines. The KYSE-150 cell line exhibited a prominent invasion capability, while the ECA-109 cell line showed up-regulated immune properties. This genomic landscape offers valuable insights for future research and therapeutic strategies in ESCC.