Effect of understaging of early oesophageal tumors on treatment

e15572 Background: Early and node negative oesophageal cancers do not undergo chemotherapy as it is felt that as the risk of lymph node metastasis is small, early operative intervention is considered the best option. We analysed a prospective database in a tertiary referral centre to see, with current preoperative staging modalities, if a significant number of patients were under staged and hence under treated preoperatively. Methods: Four hundred and fifteen patients underwent esophagectomies for cancer in our unit between March 2000 and December 2006. 117 were preoperatively staged as either T1/T2 N0. Pre-operative staging was by gastroscopy, endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), CT scan and PET-CT. These were discussed in a multi-disciplinary meeting and as per current evidence did not undergo preoperative chemotherapy. Results: 115 patients were analysed as two were excluded. Preoperatively there were 35 T0N0, 30 T1N0, and 50 T2N0. There were 42 (36.5%) patients who were under staged utilising the standard pre...