MINUTE CANCER IN A MIDDLE-ESOPHAGEAL DIVERTICULUM : A CASE REPORT

Abstract

Esophageal cancer rarely developes in esophageal diverticulum; only 45 such cases have been reported in the world literature. A 67 year old man was admitted to Kyushu Unigersity Hospital with a chief complaint of epigastralgia. An upper GI series revealed an ulcer in the gastric angle and a diverticulum in the mid-portion of the esophagus. Immediately afterwards, endoscopy using a wide forward-viewing panendoscope revealed a small elevated lesion containing a shallow ulcer in the e-sophageal diverticulum and chronic peptic ulcer in the gastric angle. The former lesion was considered to be malignant, and it was biopsied. The resected specimen consisted of a round slightly elevated lesion 7 mm in diameter containing central ulcer. Histologically, the tumor was a well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma which had directly invaded the adventitia, despite of its small size. Therefore post-operative radiation therapy was performed.