Possible association between gastrectomy and subsequent development of esophageal cancer.

To clarify the possible association between gastrectomy and the subsequent development of esophageal cancer, we studied the incidence of subjective gastroesophageal reflux in 287 patients and analyzed the nutritional status and results of endoscopic examination of the esophagus in 62 patients who had survived for a long period after gastrectomy for nonmalignant diseases. The incidence of postoperative reflux was 22.6%. None of the patients had severe deterioration of blood parameters or nutritional status. Endoscopic observation revealed esophagitis in 24.2% of patients, mainly in the lower esophagus. Histologically, there was a high incidence of infiltration of neutrophils and lymphocytes, enlarged papillae, and basal cell hyperplasia. Epithelial dysplasia was detected in 41.9% of patients, and of these there were more patients in whom the degree of dysplasia was more severe in the lower esophagus than in other areas. These data suggest that postgastrectomy gastroesophageal reflux is more likely than postgastrectomy changes in nutritional status to be a possible contributory factor to the development of subsequent esophageal cancer.