Failure patterns after adjuvant chemoradiotherapy following endoscopic resection for superficial esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Lymph node recurrence frequently involved the elective nodal irradiation field, with recurrent nerve lymph nodes being common metastasis sites. The high incidence of nodal recurrence for T1b tumors with lymphovascular invasion highlights a need for new strategies for treating this subset of superficial esophageal squamous cell carcinomas.