PERSuaDER: PERi-operative Selective Decontamination of the Digestive tract to prevent severe infectious complications after Esophagectomy (BeNeFIT21563)

Summary (Dutch or French)

Every day, 7 people in the Netherlands and 4 people in Belgium are told that they have cancer of the food pipe (esophageal cancer).

Patients with cancer of the food pipe - between the mouth and stomach – often have to undergo complex surgery to remove and reconstruct (parts of) it. Despite standardization in surgical techniques, recovery after the operation is often complicated and quality of life is diminished. One important source of complications are microorganisms in the throat, food pipe and stomach that cause infections and inflammations at the level of the join and in the lungs. The removal of these infectious microorganisms before the surgery and during recovery might be important for improving and sometimes, saving these patients’ lives. Such a targeted approach is the so-called Selective Decontamination of the Digestive tract (SDD), which is based on the preventive intake of selected antibiotics before the surgery takes place as to decrease the presence of microorganisms in the throat and food pipe.

Importantly, there is some evidence suggesting, that this strategy can reduce up to 50% of infections after the operation. Nevertheless, reliable evidence in the field of removal of the food pipe is not available and as such research to create this evidence is still warranted. We want to set up the first large-scale trial to deliver the evidence needed to use SDD in standard clinical care of all patients undergoing surgery for cancer of the food pipe.