Definitive Radiotherapy for Cervical and Upper Thoracic Esophageal Cancer (ChC&UES): A Multi-center Real World Study

Cervical and upper thoracic esophageal cancer (ESCA) are relatively rare diseases, presenting treatment challenges due to limited clinical evidence. This multi-center study (ChC\&UES) explores radical radiotherapy efficacy and safety, especially focusing on radiation dose. This study collected all eligible patients diagnosed with cervical and upper thoracic ESCA from 6 medical centers (Tianjin Cancer Hospital, Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Fujian Cancer Hospital, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shandong Cancer Hospital and the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University) in China. Patients were categoried into two group (low dose radiation group and high dose radiation group) based on radiation dose. Basic clinical information, including age, gender, ECOG score, pathological type, smoking and drinking history, initial visit date, radiotherapy dose, radiotherapy method, concurrent chemotherapy modality, immunotherapy, targeted drug usage, treatment efficacy assessment, toxicity and side effects and survival time was collected. Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate OS, survival differences were assessed using the log-rank test. Univariate analysis was conducted via Cox regression modeling, with variables demonstrating P values \< 0.1 being included in multivariate analysis. A significance level of two-sided P \< 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The aim of this study was to compared the overall survival time between low dose radiation group and high dose radiation dose group and compared the underlying side effects.