Treatment of cervical esophageal carcinoma: systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives . Up to date managing a cervical esophageal carcinoma (CEC) has remained a controversial challenge. The choice of treatment is still uncertain. In the present review we attempted to assess eligibility of surgery in treatment of CEC. Material and Methods . We have enquired particular publication databases and the enquiries yielded 24 contributions matching study selection criteria such as (1) original articles published from 2000 to 2022, (2) primary tumor localization in the cervical esophagus, (3) squamous cell carcinoma, (4) available characteristics of studied groups (age, sex, T, N, M, stage), (5) detailed description of curative procedures (radiation therapy, chemotherapy, surgery), (6) information about overall survival. These publications represented two arms of 14 surgical and 17 non-surgical subgroups to analyze. Individual patient data and parameter estimates have been renewed on the basis of original Kaplan‒Meier curves plotted. Results . The analysis revealed a highly heterogeneous (I2 =83.76 %; 95 % CI, 71.40–92.16) random effects model. Including a surgical option into treatment of CEC did not affect 3-year overall survival (р=0.665); 46.4 % (95 % CI, 37.4–55.6) vs 43.7 % (95 % CI, 35.3–51.6), respectively. Possibilities of surgical and non-surgical modalities employment were discussed. Conclusion . In treatment of CEC CRT and surgery are non-inferior to each other. These modalities are evenly associated with posterior side effects and complications, which adversely affect functional outcomes and survival. The choice of a treatment mode may depend on tumor response to induction therapy. The latter demands further investigations.