Wang H, Tang H, Fang Y, et al. - Researchers conducted a multicenter randomized clinical trial including 264 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in order to compare the safety long-term survival with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) followed by minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) vs neoadjuvant chemotherapy (nCT) followed by minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE)  for locally advanced ESCC. There were 132 patients randomly allocated to the nCRT group and 132 to the nCT group. The nCRT group and nCT group had overall morbidity rates of 47.4% and 42.6%, respectively, which did not differ significantly. Based on Clavien-Dindo classification, distribution of the severity of complications was comparable between the two groups. Those in the nCRT group had a higher pathologic complete response rate and a higher rate of negative lymph nodes than those in the nCT group. Outcomes indicated that nCRT followed by MIE seemed to have comparable safety and better histopathologic outcome vs nCT followed by MIE for the treatment of locally advanced ESCC in this trial.