Superficial Esophageal Cancer of Residual Cervical Esophagus after Resection of Thoracic Esophageal Cancer

Abstract

We report four cases of superficial esophageal cancer, arising from residual cervical esophagus after the surgical resection of thoracic esophageal cancers. In these cases the second lesions were detected endoscopically and macroscopic types were 0-IIc in three and 0-IIb in one. Surgical treatments were performed for two cases, irradiation therapy for one case and endoscopic laser treatment for one case.
Out of 417 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who underwent esophagectomy without preoperative treatment during the period between January 1985 to June 1993 in the National Cancer Center Hospital, 85 patients (20.4%) had additional primary esophageal cancers.
Such a high incidence of multicentricity of esophageal cancer and our experiense reported here suggested that a careful endoscopic examination using iodine staining method is important not only for the whole esophagus before treatment but also for the residual esophagus after treatment in patients with esophageal cancer.