Association of squamous carcinoma of the esophagus with a synchronous primary hepatocellular carcinoma.

We have seen a patient with a squamous carcinoma of the esophagus along with hepatocellular carcinoma. Though the simultaneous occurrence of these tumors is rare, we propose that their development may be more than a chance occurrence. Since many chemical carcinogens which promote esophageal cancers in experimental animals also promote hepatic malignancies, it is possible that dietary nitrosamines in man, causally implicated in esophageal carcinoma, may also sometimes induce hepatic carcinoma in the same patient.