[The morphology of cancer of the esophagus developing after a chemical burn]

Morphological studies on 25 esophageal cancers developed after chemical burn have indicated that cancer is more frequently located above the cicatricial stricture in the zone of an enlarged lumen over it. Chronic inflammation contributed to the tumor occurrence. Changes of the ulcerous esophagitis type were accompanied with inflammatory regeneration of the epithelium proceeding synchronously with regeneration of the scar in the esophageal wall. The presence of both neutral and acid mucopolysaccharids observed in developing scars indicated regeneration of the latter. An abundance of mast cells among scars has evidenced the intensity of metabolic processes. The tumor always showed the structure of squamous cell cancer, the development of the former was noted not earlier than 15 and up to 75 years following the burn. Morphological alterations in the esophagus, changed cicatricially, may be regarded as pretumor conditions.