Primary Small Cell Carcinoma of the Esophagus: Clinico- pathological Features and Therapeutic Options

Primary esophageal small cell carcinoma (SmCC) is a rare disease with a poor prognosis despite agressive multimodality combination treatment. This article presents the case of a 76-year old women diagnosed with pimary esophageal SmCC. The diagnosis was established by upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with biopsies that confirmed an esophageal SmCC positive to synaptophysin, chromogranin, CD56, TTF-1, and cytokeratin 8/18. Further staging procedures included CT, PET and EUS, followed by combination chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Restaging was then performed, again with PET and CT of the thorax, abdomen and pelvis. This was then followed by salvage esophagectomy due to the presence of residual tumor. Surgical pathology confirmed a 3 cm SmCC, with invasion of the submucosa and lymphovascular invasion. In conclusion, the article describes the rare occurrence of esophageal SmCC, together with the algorithm of diagnosis and staging based on state-of-the-art imaging methods. This was followed by combination chemoradiotherapy and surgical esophagectomy as the standard of care in this aggressive disease.