Advances in diagnosis and management of primary esophageal small cell carcinoma / 中国肿瘤临床

ABSTRACT

Primary esophageal small cell carcinoma (PESCC) is a rare disease first described by McKeown in 1952. PESCC is characterized by high malignancy, distant metastasis, and poor prognosis. The incidence of PESCC has significantly increased world-wide in recent years. However, practice guidelines that concern the histological origin, clinical diagnosis methods, therapies, and prog-nosis of PESCC are still not well established because of the paucity of cases and lack of large prospective randomized research. This ar-ticle aims to outline recent advances in the clinical and therapeutic aspects of PESCC as well as review the different opinions concerned to better understand PESCC and solve clinical problems.