Definitive chemoradiotherapy versus esophagectomy in patients with clinical T1bN0M0 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: A retrospective study

•For cT1bN0M0 esophageal SCC, DCRT was commonly used as a second choice treatment.•But DCRT showed equivalent survival to esophagectomy with less complications.•DCRT should be recommended as one of standard treatments for all cT1bN0M0 ESCC. This study aimed to determine the equivalence between definitive chemoradiotherapy (DCRT) and radical esophagectomy in clinical T1bN0M0 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Among 282 patients with cT1bN0M0 ESCC, 238 underwent radical esophagectomy and 44 underwent DCRT. Both treatments were retrospectively compared overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and complications. The DCRT group exhibited poorer patient characteristics than the surgery group, especially with mean age (73 vs. 63 years), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) status, and Charlson Comorbidity Index (p