Primary adenocarcinoma of cervical esophagus

Most upper esophageal malignancies are squamous cell carcinomas, rarely adenocarcinomas arising from Barrett's esophagus and very rarely adenocarcinomas from heterotopic gastric mucosa without evidence of Barrett's especially in the cervical part of the esophagus. We report a case of adenocarcinoma of the polypoid type in the upper esophagus (cervical esophagus) arising from ectopic gastric mucosa, in a 60 year-old man who presented with progressive dysphagia. Accurate diagnosis by esophagogram revealed a large mass in the cervical esophagus; CAT scan showed intraluminal mass at the level of thoracic inlet, esophagogastroscopy showed a fleshy polyp (3.2cm x 3.0cm) at 20 cm from the incisors with a biopsy confirming moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma with no evidence of Barrett's esophagus. Through a left cervical approach and resection of medial third of clavicle, the tumor was removed by partial esophagectomy followed by lymph node dissection, and proved to be T1NOMO, stage I (AJCC staging 6th ed.). Post operatively, the patient received chemoradiation with no evidence of recurrence or metastasis in six years of follow up. It seems this tumor has a much better prognosis than adenocarcinomas arising from Barrett's. To our knowledge only 19 cases have been reported in literature so far.