This is a prospective, multicenter, observational cohort study of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who have received neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy and are scheduled to undergo curative esophagectomy with standard systematic lymphadenectomy.
The study will not alter the current standard surgical approach. All patients will receive curative esophagectomy and systematic lymph node dissection according to institutional practice. Lymph nodes will be separated and recorded by anatomical station during surgery, followed by station-level pathological assessment. Imaging findings, pathological response, perioperative outcomes, recurrence patterns, disease-free survival, overall survival, and selected immune microenvironment features will be collected and analyzed.
The purpose of this study is to characterize station-level residual lymph node metastasis risk and immune activity after neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy. The findings may help identify candidate lymph node stations for future research on individualized or lymph node-preserving surgical strategies in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.