Poorer prognosis associated with simultaneous lymphatic and vascular invasion in patients with squamous carcinoma of the thoracic oesophagus.

Abstract The objective of this study was to demonstrate the cumulative influence of simultaneous lymphatic and vascular invasion in thoracic oesophageal squamous carcinoma after radical operation. A total of 598 cases with thoracic oesophageal squamous carcinoma that were cured by radical open oesophagectomy and extensive lymphadenectomy in the period of 2002 to 2014 were included. An association of the status of lymphovascular invasion with clinicopathological factors and a recurrent pattern was illustrated. Overall survival and disease-free survival were calculated, and the risk factors for decreased disease-free survival were determined with Kaplan-Meier subset analyses and Cox regression analysis. The status of lymphovascular invasion was significantly associated with tumour differentiation ( P = 0.045) and the pathological tumour, node and metastasis stage ( P