1990 Volume 51 Issue 7 Pages 1486-1490
A case of early thoracic esophageal carcinoma detected after an operation for hypopharyngeal carcinoma in a 55-year-old man is reported. Four months after the operation for hypopharyngeal carcinoma, esophagram showed an elevated superficial lesion in the thoratic esophagus. He was referred to our department for further examination. An endoscopic examination revealed the reddish, irregular epithelium around the protruded lesion. Iodine staining revealed the much more widespred lesion. The biopsy disclosed that the lesion was a squamous cell carcinoma, and subsequently the patient was operated upon on March 15, 1989. The microscopic examination showed a large area of intraepithelial carcinoma and dysplasia with an area of submucosal carcinoma.
From a fact that a patient with head and neck cancer frequently associated with an esophageal carcinoma in an early stage, endoscopic examination at well as the use of iodine staining is essencial for such patients to detect a possible early esophageal carcinoma.
