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Clinical presentation, endoscopic features, treatment and prognosis of synchronous upper gastrointestinal malignancies
Author(s) -
BAI Yu,
ZOU Duo Wu,
LI Zhao Shen
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of digestive diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.684
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1751-2980
pISSN - 1751-2972
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-2980.2011.00548.x
Subject(s) - medicine , esophagus , cancer , pathological , gastroenterology , esophageal cancer , presentation (obstetrics) , surgery
OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical presentation, endoscopic features and prognosis of patients with synchronous upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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%. CONCLUSIONS: 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.