Timing after neoadjuvant therapy predicts mortality in patients undergoing esophagectomy.

157Background: Neoadjuvant therapy (NT) prior to esophagectomy has dramatically improved survival in patients with esophageal cancer. Currently, most surgeons will allow 6-12 weeks after NT prior to recommending esophagectomy. Given that complete pathologic response (pCR) correlates to an improvement in survival, some have advocated a longer interval should be entertained to increase the pathologic response. The impact of an expanded NT-surgery timing is not currently well understood. Methods: Utilizing the National Cancer Database, we identified patients with esophageal cancer who underwent NT followed by esophagectomy. Patients were divided into 4 time intervals: 6 mo. Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, and Pearson’s Chi-square test were used as appropriate. Survival analyses were performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: We identified 9,256 patients who received NT followed by esophagectomy. There were 8,053 (87%) adenocarcin...