[Preoperative diagnosis of residual tumor in esophageal cancer following radiation therapy].

Abstract

The authors analyse 100 operations for resection of the esophagus after radiotherapy. Morphological examination before irradiation showed squamous cell carcinoma in all patients. Difficulties arise in the diagnosis of a residual esophageal tumor after radiotherapy, as a result of which 11 (14.5%) of 76 patients irradiated with a dose of 30-40 GY and 1 (4.2%) of 24 patients who received a dose of 50-70 Gy were exposed to the risk of a surgical intervention in the absence of morphological signs of a tumor in the removed esophagus. The difficulties of the diagnosis are due to resorption of the tumor under the effect of radiotherapy, its exophytic component in particular, the frequent submucosal position of the tumor, signs of therapeutic pathomorphosis of the tumor, and fibrosis of the esophageal wall.