Abstract
Ninety-four patients of superficial esophageal cancer without no preoperative treatment were studied. They included 22 patients with mucosal cancer (5 cases of ep cancer and 17 cases of mm cancer) and 72 with sm cancer. Mucosal cancer comprised only 21.4% of superficial cancer. The frequency of multiple superficial cancer was 18.1%, and 23.4 of the patients also had cancer of other organs, with high incidence of gastric cancer. Among the mucosal carcinomas, 90.9% were asymptomatic and 72.7% were discovered on endoscopy. Cancers macroscopically classified as ep and mml were all fundamental type, but 36.3% of mm2-3 cancer were mixed type lesions with features of types 0-IIc. A few sm cancers were of types 0-II, but many of the sm2-3 cancers were mixed type lesions with features of types 0-I. Lymph node metastasis was not seen in patients with ep-mm3 cancer, but the rate was 38.9% for sm cancer. Flat and depressed mucosal cancers are usually detected endoscopically by the presence of small whitish coat and a change in thin-reddish color of the mucosa. Even when the feature of border and surface were assessed, it was difficult to diagnose the depth of invasion of mm3 and sm1 cancer. Overall accuracy rate in the diagnosis of the depth of invasion was 69.7% on endoscopy and 67.9% on EUS.
