Endoscopic and pathological characteristics of early esophageal carcinoma / 中华消化外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze and investigate endoscopic and pathological characteristics in the diagnosis of early esophageal carcinoma. Methods The clinical data of 62 patients with early esophageal carcinoma who had been admitted to Southwest Hospital from January 2003 to December 2007 were retrospectively analyzed. Results Of all patients, 8 had upper esophageal carcinoma, 42 had middle esophageal carcinoma and 12 had lower esophageal carcinoma. The tumor growth patterns included surface diffusion growth (n = 30), bidirectional growth (n = 11), intracavitary growth (n = 9), intra-esophageal wall growth (n = 7) and mixed growth (n = 5). The diameter of lesions ranged from 1.0 cm to 2.9 cm in majority. Surgical resection was done in 38 patients, endoscopic mucosal resection in 23 patients and endoscopic submucosal dissection in 1 patient. Postoperative pathological examination showed that 13 patients had in situ carcinoma, 22 had intramucosal carcinoma and 27 had submucosal carcinoma. The lymph node metastatic rate of intramucosal carcinoma and submucosal carcinoma were 5% (1/22) and 15% (4/27), respectively. The numbers of squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, small cell carcinoma, sarcoma carcinoma and spindle carcinoma were 57, 2, 1, 1, 1, respectively. ConelusionsEarly esophageal carcinoma tends to appear in the middle part of esophagus, and with surface diffusion growth type. Most of the early esophageal carcinoma are squamous cell carcinoma. Endoscopy combined with lugol's iodine and methyleneblue staining is effective in detecting early esophageal carcinoma.