LAUSR

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radical esophagectomy is a current standard treatment for patients with clinical Stage II or III esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in Japan. However, the strategy might be insufficient to control pathological T3 (pT3) ESCC, which is an independent predictive factor for poor overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival. The circumferential resection margin (CRM) involvement is defined by two commonly used criteria in esophageal cancer: the Royal College of Pathologists (RCP) criteria define positive CRM as a tumor at or within 1 mm of the cut margin, whereas the College of American Pathologists (CAP) criteria consider only the presence of a tumor at the cut margin as CRM positive. Although some studies have compared the prognostic significance of these two CRM criteria, their usability remain controversial.