[Controversies on the treatment of early esophageal cancer].

Early cancer of the esophagus was defined as the mucosal and the submucosal cancer without any metastasis. The five-year-survival rate for early cancer cases was 61%. From our experience with nine cases of early mucosal cancer, not only no lymph node metastasis but also no vascular invasion was observed. So the diagnosis and the surgical treatment of mucosal carcinoma and further intraepithelial carcinoma must be important to obtain the long term survivals. The post operative combined treatments, such as the irradiation and the immunochemotherapy, were necessary for the early submucosal cancer with vascular invasion to improve the postoperative survivals.