94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Surgical Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1533378
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Esophageal Cancer: Treatment Updates and Future Challenges View all articles
Long-term survival outcomes of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma with intraoperative thoracic duct ligation: A large-scale propensity score matching analysis
Provisionally accepted
Kexun Li 
Si-Miao Lu Chang-Ding Li 
Chenghao Wang Jia-Hua Lv 
Qifeng Wang 
Yun-Chao Huang Yong-Tao Han 
Xue-feng Leng *
Lin Peng *- Sichuan Cancer Hospital, Chengdu, China
Background: Esophagectomy is the primary treatment for localised esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Intraoperative thoracic duct ligation (TDL) has been suggested as an adjunct to reduce the risk of postoperative chylothorax in patients with ESCC, but its effect on long-term oncologic outcomes remains uncertain.Case Management Database were analysed for patients treated between 2010 and 2017. Participants were classified into TDL and non-TDL groups. Univariate Cox regression analyses and propensity score matching (PSM) were used to identify independent risk factors for overall survival (OS).Results: A total of 2,510 patients were included, with 2,095 in the TDL group and 415 in the non-TDL group. The median follow-up was 63.97 months. No significant differences in OS were observed between the TDL and non-TDL groups (HR: 1.13; 95% CI: 0.96-1.31; P = 0.13). After PSM, the analysis continued to show no significant differences between the groups (P = 0.72).Intraoperative TDL during esophagectomy did not significantly impact long-term OS in patients with ESCC.
Keywords: esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, Intraoperative thoracic duct ligation, Esophagectomy, overall survival, Propensity score matching
Received: 23 Nov 2024; Accepted: 14 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Lu, Li, Wang, Lv, Wang, Huang, Han, Leng and Peng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xue-feng Leng, Sichuan Cancer Hospital, Chengdu, China
Lin Peng, Sichuan Cancer Hospital, Chengdu, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.