Elsevier

Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

Volume 67, Issue 2, February 2008, Pages 355-359
Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

Case study
Endoscopic submucosal dissection of recurrent or residual superficial esophageal cancer after chemoradiotherapy

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gie.2007.10.008Get rights and content

Background

Treatment of local recurrent or residual superficial esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC) with conventional EMR often results in a piecemeal resection that requires further intervention.

Objective

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD).

Design

A case series.

Patients

Between January 2006 and September 2006, 4 local recurrent or residual superficial esophageal SCCs were treated by ESD.

Interventions

ESD procedures were performed by using a bipolar needle knife and an insulation-tipped knife. After injection of glycerol into the submucosal (sm) layer, a circumferential incision was made, and an sm dissection was performed. All lesions were determined to be intramucosal or sm superficial, without lymph-node metastasis by EUS before treatment.

Main Outcome Measurements

Tumor size, en bloc resection rate, tumor-free lateral margin rates, and complications were recorded.

Results

All 4 ESD cases were successfully resected en bloc, and the tumor-free lateral margin rate was 75% (3/4) by histopathology examination. The mean tumor size of the resected specimens was 35 mm (range, 15-50 mm). There were no complications.

Limitations

The number of ESDs in our series was limited, and there are no long-term follow-up data.

Conclusions

ESD for recurrent or residual superficial esophageal tumors after chemoradiotherapy achieves the goal of an en bloc resection, with a low rate of incomplete treatment without any greater risk than the EMR technique.

Section snippets

Patients and methods

Four patients with esophageal SCC, each of whom had developed a local recurrent or residual tumor (2 recurrent tumors and 2 residual tumors) after CRT, were included in this study, which was conducted between January 2006 and September 2006 at the National Cancer Center Hospital (NCCH) in Tokyo. Three of the ESD cases involved stage I lesions treated by CRT, and the other case was of a stage II lesion. The 4 ESDs were performed from 217 days to 1377 days after the initial CRT.

ESDs by using a

Results

During the study period, 4 patients were treated with ESD. All 4 lesions were eligible for outcome analysis. Clinical characteristics of the patients are presented in Table 1. Each of the 4 ESD cases was successfully resected en bloc, with no complications. The mean (SD) ESD time was 58 ± 42 minutes (range 15-100 minutes), and the mean (SD) size of the resected specimens was 35 ± 15 mm (range 15-50 mm). On histopathologic examination, the lateral and vertical margins were negative in 3 of 4 ESD

Discussion

The ESD technique, by using a B-knife21, 22, 23, 24 and an IT-knife,17, 23, 24 enhanced the en bloc resection rate, thereby increasing the likelihood of curative results for local residual or recurrent tumors. In fact, ESDs with a B-knife and an IT-knife are performed to treat superficial neoplastic lesions, such as gastric and colonic neoplasms, at the NCCH.17, 22, 23, 24 ESD has enabled us to treat recurrent gastric cancers after EMR. As indicated in our previous reports,26 about 5% of such

Acknowledgments

We thank Christopher Dix for editing this manuscript and Paul Fockens, MD, for critically reading the manuscript.

References (27)

  • Y. Shimizu et al.

    EMR combined with chemoradiotherapy: a novel treatment for superficial esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma

    Gastrointest Endosc

    (2004)
  • M. Muto et al.

    Squamous cell carcinoma in situ at oropharyngeal and hypopharyngeal mucosal sites

    Cancer

    (2004)
  • K. Gono et al.

    Appearance of enhanced tissue features in narrow-band endoscopic imaging

    J Biomed Opt

    (2004)
  • Cited by (46)

    • Technical feasibility of endoscopic submucosal dissection for local failure after chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

      2018, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
      Citation Excerpt :

      To date, only a few small-scale reports have described the use of salvage ESD for local failure after CRT.13–15 Saito et al13 reported using salvage ESD to treat 4 patients with local recurrence of esophageal cancer, and successfully achieved en bloc resection in all cases. Koizumi et al14 described 12 cases of salvage ESD for esophageal cancer after CRT and reported procedural success in all cases, with an en bloc resection rate of 91.7% (11/12 cases).

    • Salvage endoscopic submucosal dissection for the esophagus-localized recurrence of esophageal squamous cell cancer after definitive chemoradiotherapy

      2014, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
      Citation Excerpt :

      One might speculate that the difference in the en bloc resection rates may be explained by the recently reported superiority of ESD for the curative treatment of early esophageal SCC compared with EMR.12,13 Saito et al14 previously reported their experience using ESD for the treatment of 2 recurrent and 2 residual superficial esophageal SCC cases after CRT. In their study, SCC was positive at the lateral margin in 1 patient, and submucosal tumor invasion was histopathologically observed in another 2 patients, indicating that curative resection was achieved in only 1 patient (25%).

    • State of the art in the endoscopic imaging and ablation of Barrett's esophagus

      2011, Digestive and Liver Disease
      Citation Excerpt :

      However, it is more time-consuming and has a higher rate of bleeding and perforation [72]. Most of the experience in esophageal ESD is in squamous cell carcinomas that are more prevalent in Japan [73–77]. However, there is a growing body of experience with ESD in treating esophageal adenocarcinomas [78,79].

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    Presented at 15th United European Gastroenterology Week, October 27-31, 2007, Paris, France (Gastroenterology 2007;39[Suppl]:A224).

    View full text