Hybrid Minimally Invasive Oesophagectomy Use for Oesophageal Cancer Supported

SAN FRANCISCO—Hybrid minimally invasive oesophagectomy (HMIO) is associated with fewer complications compared with open oesophagectomy (OO) for patients with resectable oesphageal cancer, a study (Abstract 5) presented this week at the 2015 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium has shown.

For those with resectable oesophageal cancer, surgical resection is the only curative option, but postoperative complications occur in more than half of patients who undergo OO. Therefore, researchers sought to investigate whether HMIO would reduce morbidity compared with OO.

For the multicenter, open-label study, researchers enrolled 207 patients age 18 to 75 with resectable oesophageal cancer in the middle or lower third of the oesophagus and randomly assigned them 1:1 to undergo either HMIO or OO.

Results showed that 35.9% of those who underwent HMIO experienced major postoperative morbidity compared with 64.4% of those in the OO group (overall response=0.31; 95% CI: 0.18,0.55; P=0.0001).

Specifically, 17.7% of patients in the HMIO group experienced major pulmonary complications versus 30.1% in the OO group (P=0.037). The 30-day mortality rate was the same for both groups (4.9%).

The findings demonstrate evidence for the short-term benefits of the minimally invasive procedure for patients with resectable oesophageal cancer and support the use of its use in this patient population.

Reference

1. Mariette C, Meunier B, Pezet D, et al. Hybrid minimally invasive versus open oesophagectomy for patients with oesophageal cancer: A multicenter, open-label, randomized phase III controlled trial, the MIRO trial. J Clin Oncol. 2015;33:(suppl 3; abstr 5).