Fluorescence Endoscopy of Esophageal Carcinoma

Summary

For locally advanced esophageal cancer (EC), neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) for 5 weeks followed by esophagectomy and lymphadenectomy, if necessary, is standard of care. It is reported that the pathological complete response (pCR) rate after nCRT ranges from 16% to 43%, with a median of 26.5%. According to current clinical guidelines, patients who achieved pCR still go for surgery even though those patients who achieved pCR may not benefit from surgery. Besides, about 50% of EC patients may have post-operative complications including pneumonia, anastomotic leakage, recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis, which lead to low health-related quality of life (HQoL). The golden standard to test the pathological response is by pathological assessment of the surgical specimen and thus after surgery. Theoretically, if pCR after nCRT can be predicted accurately before surgery by advanced imaging techniques, patients could have a wait-and-see. The wait-and-see procedure includes regular follow-up and salvage surgery if recurrence is present. Therefore, molecular fluorescence endoscopy (FME) using near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) tracer bevacizumab-800CW targeting vascular endothelial growth factor combined with high-definition white light (HD-WL) endoscopy is expected to be a promising technique to monitor pCR and fill the gap.

Timeline

Start

2018-10-29

Primary completion

2022-10-11

Completion

2022-10-11

Outcome

Outcome not reported

Stopped: “Dose-escalation was finished, but no clear correlation between fluorescence and tumor grade was established”

Publications

• Background Duan XF, Tang P, Yu ZT. Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for resectable esophageal cancer: an in-depth study of randomized controlled trials and literature review. Cancer Biol Med. 2014 Sep;11(3):191-201. doi: 10.7497/j.issn.2095-3941.2014.03.005.
• Background Booka E, Takeuchi H, Nishi T, Matsuda S, Kaburagi T, Fukuda K, Nakamura R, Takahashi T, Wada N, Kawakubo H, Omori T, Kitagawa Y. The Impact of Postoperative Complications on Survivals After Esophagectomy for Esophageal Cancer. Medicine (Baltimore). 2015 Aug;94(33):e1369. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000001369.
• Background Raymond D. Complications of esophagectomy. Surg Clin North Am. 2012 Oct;92(5):1299-313. doi: 10.1016/j.suc.2012.07.007.

Drugs

Indications