Esophageal cancer developed after gastrectomy.

Between 1965 and 1983 we treated 129 patients with primary esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Of these patients, 12 (9.3%) had previously undergone partial gastrectomy and six manifested tumors in the lower thoracic esophagus. Esophagitis of the noncancerous esophageal mucosa surrounding the cancer was confirmed in three of five patients who underwent esophagectomy. We also retrospectively evaluated 130 patients with esophageal cancer who had undergone gastrectomy, including our 12 patients, reported in the Japanese literature between the same period. Between patients with esophageal cancer who had undergone gastrectomy and those who had not there was no age difference; there were more men in the first group. Cancer developed in the lower thoracic esophagus with relatively high frequency in patients who had undergone gastrectomy compared with those who had not. The possibility of an association between gastrectomy and the subsequent development of esophageal cancer, especially lower thoracic esophageal cancer, cannot be ruled out. Further studies are necessary to clarify a possible association.