Esophageal cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in China, the incidence rate is more than 20 times that of western countries, and patients with esophageal cancer in China account for more than half of the total number of esophageal cancer in the world. Surgery is the most important means to treat esophageal cancer, and it is the first and most effective treatment method for esophageal cancer. It can not only remove the cancer radically, but also solve the problem of eating. Surgery can significantly prolong life and even long-term survival; among them, whether the esophageal cancer is in early stage, how malignant it is, whether the surgical method is correctly selected, whether the resection is standardized or complete, whether there is lymph node metastasis, whether the lymph node dissection is standardized or complete during surgery, whether the postoperative adjuvant treatment is appropriate, whether the postoperative review is regular, etc. will affect the surgical effect and survival time of esophageal cancer, which are described as follows The results are as follows
I. Early treatment or not
The postoperative survival of esophageal cancer mainly depends on whether the treatment is early or not. Since the early symptoms of esophageal cancer are not obvious, it is easy to be ignored and even the disease is delayed to the late stage. If you have basic knowledge about esophageal cancer and are alert to the symptoms, it is not difficult to detect it early. Most patients with early stage esophageal cancer can survive for a long time. The 5-year survival rate of early-stage esophageal cancer (stage I) treated by surgery in our department is as high as 70-80%, and the quality of survival is high.
How malignant it is
Malignancy degree is also one of the key factors to determine how long esophageal cancer can live. According to pathological examination, tumors with high cell differentiation have low malignancy and longer survival time; while tumors with low differentiation have high malignancy and survival time will be affected. Tumors with low differentiation often need adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy after surgery to consolidate the efficacy of surgery.
Whether the surgery is correct, standardized and thorough
1. Complete removal of lesions
Thorough resection of lesions can ensure that tumor tissues are completely removed from the body, which can lay a solid foundation for eradicating esophageal cancer, and at the same time largely reduce the risk of recurrence and metastasis;
2.Standardized and systematic lymph node dissection
Normative and systematic lymph node dissection is as important as complete removal of tumor lesions, which are key factors affecting survival time after surgery.
Fourth, the correct comprehensive assessment before surgery
Adequate assessment of the patient’s condition before surgery can provide a fuller and more comprehensive understanding of the patient’s situation, which is very important for the decision of the surgical method and the choice of postoperative adjuvant therapy.
V. Correct and timely adjuvant treatment after surgery
The treatment of esophageal cancer is a comprehensive treatment mainly based on surgery. Surgery is the most important and crucial step of esophageal cancer treatment, but post-surgery consolidation treatment is also very important. Correct radiotherapy and chemotherapy after surgery can effectively consolidate the effect of surgery and help to win longer survival time.
VI. Individual differences
Due to the different conditions and physical conditions of each person, malignant tumors themselves have very obvious individual differences. The same pathological type, the same degree of malignancy, the same stage, and the same surgical method will have different effects on survival time because of the differences of patients. The formulation of targeted individualized treatment plans for different patients can fully guarantee the efficacy of esophageal cancer treatment.
VII. Our Efforts for Long-term Survival of Esophageal Cancer Patients
It is precisely for the various factors affecting how long esophageal cancer patients can live after surgery that we formulate adequate and standardized treatment measures in the process of treating esophageal cancer, including.
1. Advanced and standardized surgery and complete resection
Our department has been devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of esophageal cancer for a long time, and has created a set of systematic, standardized and internationally advanced effective methods for diagnosis and treatment of the disease, with satisfactory recent and long-term curative effects. As a key clinical specialty of the Ministry of Health and a national clinical treatment center for esophageal cancer, our department has been in the leading position in the diagnosis and treatment of esophageal cancer. During surgery, we will not only completely remove the cancerous lesions and systematically clean the lymph nodes, but also ensure the complete resection and integrity through rapid pathological examination. After surgery, all excised tissues will be sorted and sent for pathological examination, which will eventually lead to accurate pathological diagnosis and pathological staging and provide the most important basis for guiding whether and how adjuvant treatment is needed after surgery.
2.Most patients are treated with minimally invasive surgery
Traditional esophageal cancer surgery requires opening the chest, abdomen or even neck, which is traumatic and slow to recover. At present, most of the esophageal cancer surgeries in our department adopt minimally invasive surgical treatment, which does not open the chest and abdomen, but carries out complete tumor resection, systematic lymph node dissection and safe esophagogastric anastomosis completely under thoracic and laparoscopic minimally invasive procedures. Not only can it achieve the same therapeutic effect as opening surgery, domestic and foreign and our numerous surgeries have proved countless times that minimally invasive surgery not only achieves 100% of the effect of opening surgery, but even has the advantages of small incision, less bleeding, less pain, faster recovery, less trauma to the body and beautiful incision because of the magnification function of thoracoscope.
Minimally invasive thoracoscopic esophageal cancer surgery requires high surgical operation technique of surgeons, which requires higher precision, stability, patience and care compared with traditional open-heart surgery, and thoracic surgeons need to have considerable clinical experience to successfully complete lumpectomy for esophageal cancer. Our department is not only a key clinical specialty of the Ministry of Health, but also a national esophageal cancer clinical treatment research sub-center. We are the first to carry out minimally invasive thoracoscopic surgery for esophageal cancer in China, which has not only been affirmed and praised by patients, but also received attention and reports from many media, and is the minimally invasive esophageal cancer treatment center in Hubei Province with the earliest development of minimally invasive esophageal treatment and the largest number of surgical cases.
3.Perfect preoperative evaluation
We will conduct strict preoperative examination for each patient, formulate and implement effective individualized professional treatment plan and psychological guidance according to each patient’s different conditions, and we will strictly evaluate and accurately stage each esophageal cancer surgery patient to provide effective surgical treatment.
4.Proper guidance of post-surgical adjuvant treatment
The long-term effect of esophageal cancer treatment is not only affected by local lesion removal, but also involves local recurrence and distant metastasis. Therefore, we will correctly guide and arrange patients for post-operative adjuvant treatment according to their post-surgical pathological types, lymph node metastasis and other aspects.