What is the timing for surgery (esophagectomy) after chemoradiation?

i do not know the maximum time, but for my case it was 6 weeks after my last radiation treatment. i do know that radiation treatment effects continue to kill the cancer during the waiting period and your oncologist and surgeon will determine what is the best time is for your case.

Since I've talked to hundreds of fellow patients and caregivers, around the world... I would say it's dependent a bit on your neoadjuvant treatments and staging and comorbidities. But yes, for most of us stage 3 to 4 folks who do make it to surgery, the typical window is 6 to 10 weeks. Go beyond that, surgery is still very do-able, but you might be scanned again to be sure nothing has changed. But the wait time is more for letting our bodies cool down and recover from chemo and/or immunotherapy and certainly radiation. Sometimes our insides are a bit inflamed. But they do wanna strike while the iron is hot... in other words... your cancer is really beat back good and almost dormant... let's cut the sumbitch out now! Because it will come back if they don't.

For my husband it was to be 6 to 10 weeks after last chemo radiation. Everyone that previously mentioned is correct in the different timings and why. We ran into a snag when he did the stress echocardiogram and found that he might have some heart blockages. This might postpone the surgery but we don’t know how long. Today we’re going for a regular echocardiogram and Wednesday an angiogram to see if we can clear the blockages without using heparin in the body, but just use the heparinized stents. We will find out after Wednesday if we can proceed with the surgery this August 24.
Sounds like you are right on track so far. Keep going! My prayers are for all on this website.

Hi....I appreciate your quick response. It is helpful and you and your husband are in my prayers.....Pat

Hi....thank you for the input. Hope your outcomes are terrific! Pat

Hi .....very good feedback. My issue is surgeon has had some surgery himself and cannot start surgery most likely before 12 or 13 weeks or more,,,.this becomes potential conflict between his schedule and my best time range for effective outcomes. Five weeks of chemo and radiation paid off with shrunken tumour so I dont want to give it a chance to fire up again. Thank you and wish you all the best

There are other surgeons... even within the same facility... no? The esophagectomy is a big ass surgery... no one surgeon will be in the operating with you... there will be at least two. Shoot... it's very crowded in the OR when they wheel you in! But if you really wanna stay with your surgeon... a few more weeks may not make any difference... they'll rescan you to be sure. All the best.

You contact me privately should you wanna chat about anything... especially the post-op journey. That is something unto itself!

Gary

Valid question without a known answer, I would say. My suggestion: if you have access to a different top-tier facility with equal or greater experience/volume of your planned surgery, make the switch if you can, in order not to delay. Could postponing surgery allow time for metastasis? That's the question I would have.

@pat888, have you got a surgery date now? How are you doing?

My husband was on track with his chemo / radiation regime , his 3 inch tumor in lower esophagus has shrunk some but early pet scan showed no “ hot spots”. His surgery was in time frame of 6 weeks after therapy. He came to UCLA for preop Angiogram ordered after Stress echocardiogram came back with poor results. The angiogram revealed 5 blocked ( main artery 100%) coronary arteries which earned him a free pass to 4 vessel heart bypass surgery two days later!!! Talk about a big wrench thrown in! But his thoracic surgeon saw him before surgery and feels we can still be in the good window of time to have his surgery 6-8 weeks after this bypass. So that is around 12-14 weeks after chemo and radiation. She is one of the top thoracic surgeons that have done lots of esophagectomies so I’m glad she feels we are still on course.
Hope this helps
Patti