Optimal surgical approach to esophagectomy for cancer

Surgery is the primary curative therapy for patients with esophageal cancer. It is now widely recognized that a surgical procedure such as esophagectomy has lower mortality and morbidity rates when performed in high-volume centers.1,2 Nevertheless, esophagectomy is still associated with a substantial operative risk.3,4 For continuous improvement of esophagectomy outcome, an optimal treatment strategy should not only be based on proper patient selection by means of accurate staging and preoperative risk assessment. Optimization of the surgical approach for patients with esophageal cancer has also been the focus of many studies over the last years.

• View at Publisher
• View at Scopus