RT Book, Section
A1 Law, Simon
A2 Zinner, Michael J.
A2 Ashley, Stanley W.
SR Print(0)
ID 57009514
T1 Chapter 17. Cancer of the Esophagus
T2 Maingot's Abdominal Operations, 12e
YR 2013
FD 2013
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 978-0-07-163388-8
LK accesssurgery.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=57009514
RD 2024/04/16
AB One  of  the  earliest  descriptions  of  esophageal  cancer  was  in  the  second  century  ad,  when  Galen  described  a  fleshy  obstructing  growth  in  the  esophagus,  which  was  responsible  for  the  inability  to  swallow  and  led  to  emaciation  and  death.  In  early  Chinese  literature,  a  patient  who  had  esophageal  cancer  was  described  as  “one  suffers  in  autumn,  and  does  not  live  to  see  the  coming  summer.”  Improvement  in  treatment  strategies  has  resulted  in  better  outcome.  However,  most  patients  are  still  diagnosed  at  an  advanced  disease  stage,  with  consequent  poor  prognosis.  In  1877,  Czerny  was  the  first  to  successfully  resect  a  cervical  esophageal  cancer  and  the  patient  lived  for  15  months.  Torek  in  1913  performed  the  first  successful  transthoracic  resection.1  A  67-year-old  woman  had  a  squamous  cell  cancer  of  the  midesophagus.  Through  a  left  thoracotomy,  the  esophagus  was  resected.  The  proximal  cervical  esophagus  was  brought  out  through  an  incision  anterior  to  the  sternocleidomastoid  muscle  and  tunneled  subcutaneously  along  the  anterior  chest  wall,  where  a  cutaneous  esophagostomy  was  fashioned.  The  patient  was  fed  via  a  rubber  tube  connecting  the  esophagostomy  with  a  gastrostomy.  The  patient  lived  for  17  years.