A Single-center, Single-arm Clinical Study Evaluating the Short-term Efficacy of Inflatable Mediastinoscopic-assisted Transhiatal Laparoscopic Esophagectomy for the Radical Resection of Thoracic Esophageal Cancer

Abstract Background China has a high incidence of esophageal cancer, with surgery being the primary treatment modality. While the right thoracic approach for radical esophagectomy remains the standard surgical method, it is associated with a significant rate of postoperative complications. Given that the esophagus is a posterior mediastinal organ, a mediastinal approach for radical esophagectomy without thoracotomy could potentially reduce postoperative complications. However, this hypothesis has yet to be validated by prospective clinical studies. To explore this further, we conducted a single-center, single-arm clinical study to assess the short-term efficacy of inflatable video-assisted mediastinoscopic transhiatal esophagectomy (IVMTE) combined with laparoscopy for the treatment of thoracic esophageal cancer. Methods In this prospective, single-arm phase II clinical trial, 35 patients with cTis-3N0M0 thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) were enrolled between March 2021 and September 2023. All patients underwent radical esophagectomy using IVMTE. The primary endpoint of the study was the overall surgical complication rate, while secondary endpoints included the R0 resection rate, the extent and number of lymph nodes dissected, the 1-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate, and the 1-year overall survival (OS) rate. To evaluate the outcomes, propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was performed, comparing the results with 70 cTis-3N0M0 ESCC patients who underwent minimally invasive McKeown esophagectomy (MIME) using a thoracoscopic-laparoscopic approach during the same period (March 2021 to September 2023).