Two Resected Cases of Small Cell Carcinoma of the Esophagus Survived More Than Two Years

Small cell carcinoma of the esophagus has a poor prognosis. It has been reported that the mean survival period is 5.3 months. Recently we experienced two resected cases of small cell carcinoma of the esophagus survived more than two years after surgery. Both patient had a stage I carcinoma and underwent thoracic esophagectomy with R3 lymph node dissection. In a review of literature, all survivors for more than 2 years had no distant metastasis and underwent the multidisciplinary therapy comprising of radical resection of the tumor with lymph node dissection and some adjuvant therapy. However, overall prognosis of small cell carcinoma of the esophagus is very poor, and there is no effective treatment for improving the prognosis. In the present state of treatment, early diagnosis before distant metastasis occur and multidisciplinary treatment consisting of radical resection and combined therapies such as chemotherapy and irradiation are the treatment of choice.