Tumor length as a prognostic factor in esophageal malignancy: univariate and multivariate survival analyses.

Background And Objectives: Gastrointestinal specialists generally feel that long esophageal tumors carry a worse prognosis and are likely to be more advanced than shorter lesions. Our aim was to investigate the relationship between histologically determined tumor length and aspects of tumor pathology and survival for patients with resected esophageal malignancy.

Methods: Three hundred and nine patients who underwent esophageal resection with curative intent in our unit between 1994 and 2003 were retrospectively analyzed.