Treatment and outcome of young patients with esophageal cancer in the Netherlands

Background Esophageal cancer is increasingly recognized in younger patients. We compared clinicopathological characteristics, treatment, and survival of patients aged ≤50 years with patients aged >50 years diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the Netherlands. Methods From the nationwide Netherlands Cancer Registry we identified all patients diagnosed with esophageal cancer between January 2000 and January 2011. Proportions were compared using the χ2 test for categorical variables. Overall and relative survival was calculated. Results Eleven percent of the patients (n = 1,466) were aged ≤50 years and adenocarcinoma was the most common tumor type (73.6%). Grade of tumor differentiation was comparable between both age groups (P = 0.460) as well as T‐stage (P = 0.058). Younger patients presented more often with positive lymph nodes (70.1% vs. 66.4%, P = 0.010) and distant metastasis (50.5% vs. 44.7%, P 0.05. A subgroup analysis among patients diagnosed with adenocarcinoma revealed similar results. Conclusions Young patients with esophageal cancer present with more advanced disease stage and received more often treatment. However, they show comparable relative survival rates with their older counterparts. J. Surg. Oncol. 2014 109:561–566. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.