Impact of body mass index on postoperative complications and long-term survival in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

37 Background: Chachexia and undernutrition have been suggested to be risk factors for postoperative complications and survival in cancer patients. The aim of this study was to investigate whether body mass index (BMI) is related to the short-term and long-term outcomes in patients who undergo an esophagectomy for the resection of esophageal squamous cell cancer. Methods: Three hundred forty patients who underwent an esophagectomy for the resection of esophageal squamous cell cancer between 2003 and 2008 were retrospectively reviewed. The patients were divided into two groups: an L-BMI group characterized by a BMI < 18.5 kg/m2, and an N-BMI group characterized by a BMI ≥ 18.5 kg/m2. The overall and disease-free survival curves of the two BMI groups were determined using the Kaplan-Meier method and were compared using a log-rank test. A Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used for the univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: The study included 40 patients in the L-BMI group and 300 patie...