Clinical outcomes of surgical resection for recurrent lesion after curative esophagectomy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a nationwide, large-scale retrospective study

Background Several studies have reported the efficacy of resection for recurrent lesions. However, they involved a limited number of subjects. This study aimed to identify a subset of patients who benefit from surgical resection of recurrent lesions after curative esophagectomy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Methods Clinicopathological features of 186 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who underwent surgical treatment for postoperative recurrent lesions at 37 accredited institutions of the Japanese Esophageal Society were evaluated. Results The most common recurrence site was the lymph node (106 cases; 58.6%), followed by the lung (40 cases; 22.1%). Univariate analyses revealed that pN 0–1 at esophagectomy ( P = 0.0348), recurrence-free interval of ≥ 550 days ( P = 0.0306), R0 resection ( P