[Synchronous gastric and oesophageal cancer: a case report]

We describe the case of a male patient, aged 50, affected by an undifferentiated cancer of the gastric stump of a Billroth II gastric resection associated with a well-differentiated squamous-cell cancer of the oesophagus. The patient was submitted to gastrectomy and removal of the oesophagus together with reconstruction trough colon interposition. The association of the two synchronous neoplasms of the stomach and oesophagus is a very uncommon event, as the evidence in the medical literature demonstrates. Nevertheless, for the purposes of achieving in the right surgical planning, it is important to take this possibility into consideration in the preoperative management of oesophageal cancer, through the study of the organs which could be used to reconstruct the transit (stomach, colon). The association with a gastric neoplasm implies the use of the other organs (colon, ileum). However, for a number of selected cases of association with early gastric cancer, Japanese authors have suggested using the stomach in place of the oesophagus.