Surgery combined with endoscopic photodynamic therapy for simultaneous double primary early carcinomas of the esophagus and cardia: a case report.

BACKGROUND

Known as double primary cancers or duplicated cancers, are the simultaneous occurrence of two or more primary malignancies with different histological type. The location and stage of each tumor determine the degree of complexity of treatment. Conventional methods pose great difficulties since a single modality is usually inadequate to reach total eradication.

CASE SUMMARY: This paper addresses a 66-year-old male patient diagnosed with an esophageal tumor whose presence had been observed for more than one month without any particular symptoms or signs. The patient presented an unusual example of dual primary early carcinoma involving the cardia and the upper esophagus. Given single-modality techniques were insufficient for total eradication, the tumor in the upper esophagus, which was proximally to the neck, presented special difficulties for conventional treatment. We followed a thorough treatment schedule combining endoscopic photodynamic therapy with surgical resection. With no appreciable disease progression or complications noted over a 32-month follow-up period, this strategy produced good clinical results.

CONCLUSION

In this case, surgical intervention and photodynamic therapy worked well, providing new optionsfor treating similar clinical situations.