Abstract
Carcinoma of the esophagus remains a common disease with high mortality. Despite recent technology in medicine, late diagnosis is common. Surgical resection is the best treatment modality, but the procedures are associated with high mortality and morbidity.
The survival of this patients is dependent on the stage of the disease at the time of the diagnosis. Although other factors like tumour type and site can influence survival, the TNM staging remains the best predictor of prognosis. Recently the surgical techniques for esophageal resection have included extensive lymph node resection for better staging and better survival. We retrospectively reviewed all cases who underwent esophageal resection for carcinoma in whom a complete follow up for a minimum of 5 years were available. We analysed the data of these patients in order to determine the factors influencing long term survival and to establish the role of nodal involvement in predicting prognosis.