Positron emission tomography complete metabolic response as a favorable prognostic predictor in esophageal cancer following neoadjuvant chemotherapy with docetaxel/cisplatin/5-fluorouracil

Table 1 Patient characteristics

	PET-CMR, n = 22	Non-PET-CMR, n = 36	P value
Age, mean	65.9 (48.0-76.0)	65.0 (47.0-80.0)	0.82
Male/Female	20/2	33/3	0.41
Comorbidity	15	28
Location
Ce	1	4	0.58
Ut	4	3
Mt	10	17
Lt	7	12
Before NAC
cStage
cT
T1	2	0	0.044
T2	6	3
T3	13	32
T4	1	1
cN
N0	5	9	0.27
N1	12	14
N2	4	13
N3	1	0
cM
M0	17	28	0.96
M1	5	8
cStage
I	3	4	0.94
II	4	5
III	10	19
IVA	5	8
IVB	0	0
Primary, SUVmax mean	16.4 ± 6.5	15.7 ± 6.5	0.98
LN+	14 (63.6%)	21 (58.3%)	0.69
After NAC
CT-Stage
T
T1	9	2	0.0058
T2	12	26
T3	1	6
T4	0	2
N
N0	21	21	0.0081
N1	1	8
N2	0	7
N3	0	0
M
M0	22	36	-
M1	0	0
Stage
0	5	0	0.0017
I	4	1
II	12	23
III	1	10
IVA	0	2
IVB	0	0
Down stage	15	17	0.119

Ce: Cervical esophagus; CT: Computed tomography; LN: Lymph node; Lt: Lower thoracic esophagus; Mt: Middle thoracic esophagus; NAC: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy; PET-CMR: Positron emission tomography-complete metabolic response; SUV_max: Maximal standardized uptake value; Ut: Upper thoracic esophagus