Esophageal invasion by an upper gastric cancer: retrospective evaluation and prognosis

From 1975 to 1984, 894 patients with gastric cancer were operated on in the Department of Surgery at Kurume University School of Medicine. Of these, 86 (10%) had upper gastric cancer invading the esophagus. The 86 resected tumors were divided into two groups according to the surgical approach, thoraco-abdominal or abdominal. Twenty-three (27%) were resected through the abdominal approach and 63 (73%) were resected by the thoraco-abdominal approach. The overall positive mediastinal lymphnode metastasis rates for the 55 patients who underwent mediastinal lymphnode dissection by the thoraco-abdominal approach were 22% for differentiated type and 37% for undifferentiated type. The positive mediastinal lymphnode metastasis and the correlation to the extent of esophageal cancer invasion were observed at a minimal 7 mm distance from the esophago-gastric (E-G) junction for the undifferentiated type, and 2.2 cm for the differentiated type. Sixteen patients with cancer invading the esophagus were radically resected by the abdominal approach with an overall survival rate of 39%, while 48 were resected by the thoraco-abdominal approach with a 5 year survival rate of 40%. The 86 resected tumors were further subdivided into two groups according to the year of surgery. From 1975 to 1979, the abdominal approach was employed in 36% and the thoraco-abdominal approach in 64% of the surgeries, with an overall curative resection rate of 47%. However, from 1980 to 1984, the abdominal approach was employed in only 17% and the thoraco-abdominal approach in 83% of the surgeries and the curative resection rate increased to 59%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)