A Rare Case of Synchronous Esophageal and Pancreatic Malignancy

The incidence of double primary tumors has been rising over the past few decades. Synchronous pancreatic and esophageal carcinomas are rarely reported in the literature. In this case report, we present an 86-year-old man who developed synchronous double cancers of the pancreas and esophagus. He has a past medical history of hypertension and prior nicotine dependence and was admitted for abdominal pain and weight loss. Laboratory data on admission were normal except for the serum carbonic anhydrase 19-9 (54 U/mL, reference range: 0-34 U/mL) and carcinoembryonic antigen (712.4 ng/mL, reference range: less than <5.0 ng/mL). Abdominal ultrasonography revealed a 2.3 cm lesion at the head of the pancreas. A CT scan with contrast was highly suspicious for pancreatic head malignancy. The patient underwent endoscopical ultrasound (EUS) and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) that showed a large non-obstructing ulcerating mass at the gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) as well as a pancreatic head mass. Histological findings from the obtained tissue demonstrated pancreatic adenocarcinoma and intestinal-type adenocarcinoma of the esophagus with an invasion of lamina propria, and diagnosis of double cancers of the pancreas and esophagus was made. In conclusion, our case report represents the fifth documented case of dual primary malignancy of the esophagus and pancreas. This highlights that, despite their rarity, primary distant malignancies in patients with pancreatic cancer is an entity that clinicians should be more cognizant about especially among the male smoker/ex-smoker patient population, specifically given that the current data demonstrate that the prognosis of double cancers primarily depends on the prognosis of the pancreatic carcinoma.