Although early diagnosis is of prime importance in order to accomplish better results, there have been only 177 reported cases of early esophageal carcinoma in Japanese literature.
We have experienced 17 such cases, 15 males and 2 females, and their ages ranged from 42 to 75. Only 5 of them had some sort of subjective symptoms and the rest were completely asytnptomatic. As for the location of these lesions, 15 were in Im, one in Ei and one in Ea. The size of the lesion was 1.9cm in mean, ranging from 0.4 to 6.5cm. Macroscopically one was tumorous type, 4 superficial polypoid, 3 plateau-like, one flat, 5 erosive and 3 superficial ulcerative. Eleven of them were found with esophagogram and 6 with esophagoscopy. Histologically one was pseudosarcoma, one basal cell carcinoma and 15 squamous cell carcinoma. Fifteen of them were treated surgically and 2 died in immediate postoperative period. Four of 15 died of other causes and 9 are alive. No case has died of carcinoma. Diagnosis of early esophageal carcinoma has been discussed with special emphasis placed on its endoscopic findings.
