Background: Few studies have evaluated the outcomes of transhiatal and right thoracoabdominal resection of Siewert type II adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction. This study investigated the relative effect of these two methods in the surgical treatment of Siewert type II adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction.
Methods: Clinical data for 211 Siewert type II cancer patients were collected and classified into transhiatal group (n = 181) and right thoracoabdominal group (n = 30) according to surgical approach. Short-term outcomes were compared between these two groups. A 1:1 propensity score matching was performed using a logistic regression model. Recurrence-free survival and overall survival were compared between the matched groups.
Results: The right thoracoabdominal group had significantly greater intraoperative blood loss and longer operative time compared with transhiatal group. Complications corresponding to Clavien–Dindo grade III or higher were 4.4% in transhiatal group and 30% in right thoracoabdominal group (P < 0.05). The right thoracoabdominal group exhibited greater blood loss, longer operative time, longer hospitalization, and a smaller number of lymph nodes retrieved than the transhiatal group as evidenced by PSM analysis, and patients in transhiatal group also experienced significantly better survival than patients in right thoracoabdominal group.
Conclusion: In this study, the transhiatal approach was associated with more favorable short-term and oncological outcomes than the right thoracoabdominal group approach for Siewert type II adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction. The transhiatal approach with total gastrectomy appears to be an optional choice for this type of tumor, especially for esophagus invasion ≤ 2 cm. Well-designed randomized control trials are necessary to validate our findings.
Keywords: adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction, Siewert type II, transhiatal resection, right thoracoabdominal resection