Signet Ring Cell Features are Associated with Poor Response to Neoadjuvant Treatment and Dismal Survival in Patients with High-Grade Esophageal Adenocarcinoma

Clinical significance of signet ring cells in surgical esophageal and esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

The clinical significance of signet ring cells (SRCs) in surgical esophageal and esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma (EEGJA) remains unclear now.

AIM

To explore the association between the presence of SRCs and the clinicopathological and prognostic characteristics in surgical EEGJA patients by combining and analyzing relevant studies.

METHODS

The PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE electronic databases were searched for the relevant literature up to March 28, 2021. The relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated to assess the relationship between SRCs and clinicopathological parameters of surgical EEGJA patients, and the hazard ratio (HR) with 95%CI was calculated to explore the impact of SRC on the prognosis. All statistical analyses were conducted with STATA 12.0 software.

RESULTS

A total of ten articles were included, involving 30322 EEGJA patients. The pooled results indicated that the presence of SRCs was significantly associated with tumor location (RR: 0.76, 95%CI: 0.61-0.96, P = 0.022; I² = 49.4%, P = 0.160) and tumor-node-metastasis stage (RR: 1.30, 95%CI: 1.02-1.65, P = 0.031; I² = 73.1%, P = 0.002). Meanwhile, the presence of SRCs in surgical EEGJA patients predicted a poor overall survival (HR: 1.36, 95%CI: 1.12-1.65, P = 0.002; I² = 85.7%, P < 0.001) and disease-specific survival (HR: 1.86, 95%CI: 1.55-2.25, P < 0.001; I² = 63.1%, P = 0.043).

CONCLUSION

The presence of SRCs is related with advanced tumor stage and poor prognosis and could serve as a reliable and effective parameter for the prediction of postoperative survival and formulation of therapy strategy in EEGJA patients. However, more high-quality studies are still needed to verify the above findings.

Comparative analysis of clinical, treatment, and survival characteristics of signet ring cell and adenocarcinoma of esophagus

Background

Signet ring cell carcinoma (SRC) is a rare pathological subtype of mucinous adenocarcinoma (AC). Clinical features, prognosis, and especially treatment methods between SRC and AC of the esophagus remain controversial. Thus, we conducted this study to explore the differences in clinicopathological characteristics and treatment modalities between SRC and AC of the esophagus.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study based on the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program database was conducted. Patients diagnosed with SRC or AC not otherwise specified (NOS) were selected between 2004 and 2018. We investigated the prognosis of SRC and AC in terms of overall survival (OS). A subgroup analysis was performed according to the stage and different treatment methods.

Results

A total of 24,987 patients were enrolled, including 1,147 with SRC and 23,840 with AC. In the multivariate Cox analysis of the whole cohort, SRC, tumor site, differentiation, metastases, American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 6th edition staging, treatment, tumor size, lymph nodes examined, and positive lymph nodes were independent risk factors. The results of the subgroup analysis showed that surgery alone was associated with better OS for AC at the early stage, but was not significantly different for SRC (P=0.896). Surgery plus adjuvant therapy was the best treatment for SRC and AC at the late stage. In the multivariate Cox analysis, the treatment of surgery plus adjuvant therapy had a tendency towards better OS at the early stage [hazard ratio (HR): 0.64, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.39-1.1, P=0.08].

Conclusions

SRC is an independent risk factor, with a higher grade of differentiation, later stage, larger tumor size, more positive lymph nodes, and poorer prognosis compared with AC. Surgery plus adjuvant therapy seems to be useful for SRC at the early stage, but further research is needed.