Objective:

The aim of this study was to determine the clinical role of the systemic immune-inflammation index in patients with resectable adenocarcinoma of the gastroesophageal junction treated with or without neoadjuvant therapy.

Background:

Adenocarcinoma of the gastroesophageal junction is an aggressive disease, with less than 20% of overall patients surviving more than 5 years after diagnosis, while currently available clinical staging for esophageal cancer is lacking necessary accuracy. The systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) based on peripheral neutrophil, lymphocyte, and platelet counts has shown a prognostic impact in various malignancies.

Methods:

Data of consecutive patients undergoing esophagectomy (n= 320, 1992 to 2016) were abstracted. The cut point for high and low SII before neoadjuvant treatment and before surgery was calculated for illustration of the Kaplan-Meier curves. SII was used for the correlation with patients’ clinicopathological characteristics as a continuous variable. Survival was analyzed with Cox proportional hazards models using clinical or pathological staging, adjusting for other known survival predictors.

Results:

In both neoadjuvantly treated and primarily resected patients, high SII was significantly associated with diminished overall [hazard ratio (HR) 1.3, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.2–1.4; HR 1.2, 95% CI 1.2–1.3, respectively] and disease-free survival (HR 1.3, 95% CI 1.2–1.3; HR 1.2, 95% CI 1.2–1.3, respectively). In multivariable survival analysis, SII remained an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (HR 1.3, 95% CI 1.2–1.4; HR 1.2, 95% CI 1.2–1.3, respectively) and disease-free survival (HR 1.3, 95% CI 1.2–1.3; HR 1.2, 95% CI 1.2–1.3, respectively) in primarily resected and neoadjuvantly treated patients.

Conclusion:

Elevated SII is an independent adverse prognostic factor in patients with resectable gastroesophageal adenocarcinomas with and without neoadjuvant treatment.