Purpose: Tumors with lymphovascular invasion (LVI) are thought to be associated with lymph node metastasis and to lead to a worse prognosis. However, the effect of LVI on the prognosis of adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric junction (AEG) is still unclear.
Patients and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 224 consecutive patients with non-metastatic AEG who underwent radical surgery in our hospital from 2004 to 2018. Inverse probability weighting (IPW) analysis was used to eliminate the selection bias. IPW-adjusted Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models were used to compare disease-specific survival (DSS) and overall survival (OS) between patients with and without LVI.
Results: A total of 224 patients with non-metastatic AEG who underwent radical resection were included in the study and 96 (42.9%) patients developed LVI. Survival analysis showed that LVI were associated with worse DSS (hazard ratio (HR) = 3.12; 95% CI: 1.93– 5.03) and worse OS (HR = 2.33; 95% CI: 1.61– 3.38). The results were consistent across subgroups stratified by pathologic N stage. Subgroup analysis demonstrated that Siewert type III (HR= 3.20, 95% CI: 1.45– 7.06) was associated with worse DSS, but not Siewert type I/II (HR= 1.46, 95% CI: 0.94– 2.31, P-interaction=0.047).
Conclusion: LVI are associated with worse prognosis in AEG. LVI had a worse effect on DSS in Siewert type III AEG than Siewert type I/II AEG.
Keywords: lymphovascular invasion, adenocarcinoma of esophagogastric junction, risk factor, overall survival, disease-specific survival