Clinical presentation, endoscopic features, treatment and prognosis of synchronous upper gastrointestinal...

To study the clinical presentation, endoscopic features and prognosis of patients with synchronous upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancers.

A prospective database review of consecutive patients with synchronous upper GI malignancies was performed in a tertiary university hospital endoscopy unit. Gender, age, symptoms and cancer sites, endoscopic and pathological findings, as well as the long-term survival of these patients were analyzed.

A total of 64 patients with a median age of 56 years were included, in which 81.3% were male, 71.9% presented with notable features, 68.8% had familial history of cancer, 56.3% of gastric cancers were at the gastric body, 92.9% of the duodenal malignancies at the duodenal bulb, all esophageal cancers at the middle and lower part of esophagus and a significant proportion of tumors in the synchronous malignancies group were poorly differentiated. In all patients, 20 underwent curative surgical treatment and the 5-year survival rate was only 20%.

Patients with synchronous upper GI cancers are mainly male and present with different anatomic distribution and endoscopic features. They carry a poor prognosis as compared with single primary cancer patients. This case series describes the clinical profiles and emphasizes the necessity of a thorough examination for additional cancers before treatment of upper GI cancer.