Abstract
Of 262 patients with carcinoma of the esophagus or cardia seen at the Lahey Clinic between January 1970 and January 1983, 209 (79.8%) underwent surgical exploration. This report is confined to the 167 operations performed in the division of the senior author. Half of the tumors involved the esophagogastric junction with nearly equal numbers being located in the lower and upper halves of the thoracic esophagus and a relatively small number involving the cervical esophagus. The majority were adenocarcinomas of which 20 developed in a Barrett esophagus. Three of the squamous cell cancers developed in an achalasic esophagus. Of the resected tumors, 94 were classified as Stage III, 18 as Stage II, and 37 as Stage I. Esophagogastrectomy with esophagogastrostomy is the procedure of choice regardless of the level of the lesion. Of the 167 patients, 149 (89.2%) underwent resection with two deaths within 30 days of operation for a hospital mortality rate of 1.3%. There were 22 major complications (14.9%), which prolonged the hospital stay, and 14 minor complications (9.5%). Satisfactory palliation of dysphagia was achieved in 82.7% of the patients. The overall adjusted survival rate at 5 years was 21.7% +/- 7.5% (SEM) with a median survival time of 17.3 months. The 5-year adjusted survival rate according to stage was 43.4% for patients with Stage I lesions, 23.6% for Stage II lesions, and 12.8% for Stage III lesions (p = 0.0004). A multivariate analysis of risk factors involved in survival disclosed that neither age, sex, site of tumor, duration of symptoms, or cell type influenced survival, but stage of the disease had a profound effect. It is concluded that long-term survival of patients with carcinoma of the esophagus or cardia will probably not improve until early diagnosis is possible and that esophagogastrectomy by conventional techniques should be the treatment of choice until other forms of therapy prove superior to it both in terms of palliation and long-term survival.