1996 Volume 29 Issue 8 Pages 1768-1771
We report a case of recurrence in the cervical and upper mediastinal lymph nodes four years after resection of esophageal mucosal cancer. A 53-year-old male patient had undergone thoracoabdominal subtotal esophagectomy with lymph node dissection (RII) for IIc type esophageal mucosal carcinoma in 1988. Histopathological findings were as follows: Moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma, 0-IIc type, 0.7×0.6cm in size. m3 in depth, no lymphatic and vascular invasion, no lymph nodeinvolvement. Four years after the operation, recurrence was strictly examined upper mediastinal lymph nodes swelling was detected by CT scanning. At that time he complained of sever hoarseness. We treated him by chemo-radio therapy, but he died of multiple liver and lung metastasis after six months. It is generally considered that the prognosis of esophageal mucosal cancer is good. We treated this patient surgically, but recurrence or metastasis of the cancer was found. Therefore we believe that it is very important in the future to predict in which kinds of patients with esophageal mucosal cancer, especially m3 in depth, there is a trend toward recurrence or metastasis.
