Esophagogastric Junction Disorder

This is an exploratory observational biomarker study in approximately 100 eligible patients with resectable adenocarcinomas of the esophagus and gastro- esophageal junction (GEJ) type I-II (GEAC) to investigate the difference deletion frequency of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) between peripheral veins and tumor-draining veins (primary endpoint), prognostic value, relevance of a set of two additional blood-based biomarkers analyzed from a single blood sampling tube (secondary endpoints). The underlying hypothesis is that the biomarker alone or in combination improve preoperative staging and help to identify patients at risk for metastasis. This should enable a better stratification of GEAC patients to neo-adjuvant treatment, (intensified) peri-operative treatment, or even surgery alone, in selected cases. The data of the CIRCULATE study shall be used design subsequent studies testing the predictive role of these biomarkers for surgical management. Patients will provide blood samples and lymphatic fluid during the operation and annual blood samples during clinical follow up of 5 years.

Patients with histologically confirmed esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma with pre-operative staging cT3-4N+M0，aged between 18-75 years old, with adequate organ function and having an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status score ≤2, are randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with DT46-50Gy plus concomitant weekly oxaliplatin and 5-Fu, perioperative chemotherapy of FLOT regimen or FOLFOX regimen. The primary end point is disease free survival (DFS), and secondary end point is 5-year overall survival (OS), pathological complete remission (pCR) and treatment safety. The final study analytics are to be conducted at the end of the 5th year after the last patient's enrollment.