Comparing the prognosis of esophageal adenocarcinoma with bone and liver metastases: A competing risk analysis

Abstract

Background About half of the patients with esophageal cancer are presenting with metastasis at initial diagnosis. However, few studies have concerned on the prognostic factors of metastatic esophageal adenocarcinoma (mEAC). This research aimed to investigate the effects of single bone metastasis (BM) and single liver metastasis (LM) on prognosis of mEAC patients. Methods Data were obtained from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program database. We compared the effects of LM and BM on overall survival (OS), EAC-specific survival (CSS), and EAC-specific death (EASD) by multivariate Cox regression, Kaplan-Meier analysis, and competing risk regression models. Results A total of 1,278 EAC patients were recruited in this study. Of which 78.95% (1009/1278) were EASD, and 12.68% (162/1278) were non-EAC-specific death (non-EASD). In multivariate Cox regression analysis, surgery, chemotherapy, and AJCC.T2 (vs. T1) were identified as protective factors for OS&CSS, while divorced/separated, single/unmarried (vs. married), grade III-IV (vs. grade I-II) and BM (vs. LM) were identified as risk factors. Competing risk regression analysis further confirmed that surgery and chemotherapy were beneficial to the patients with mEAC, and BM (vs. LM) was a risk factor for mEAC patients when considering the existence of the competitive risk events. Conclusion Our study indicated that mEAC patients with BM face a worse prognosis compared to those with LM. Additionally, surgery and chemotherapy emerge as protective factors for mEAC patients. These findings offer evidence-based insights for clinical management and contribute to the field.