Bronchoscopy and carcinoma of the esophagus II. Carcinoma of the esophagus with tracheobronchial involvement.

Involvement of the tracheobronchial tree, as observed through the bronchoscope, was in the form of impingement or invasion. Bronchoscopy was performed on 525 patients with carcinoma of the esophagus. Impingement was found in 91 patients and invasion in 87 patients. Forty-eight of the 63 patients with impingement and 7 of the 51 patients with invasion were found to have resectable tumors. Bypass operations were performed on the rest of the patients. The operative mortality was high for both bypass and resection procedures. The median survival for bypassed patients and resected patients were 4 months and 9 months, respectively. Four resected patients survived 3 years or more, 2 of whom had no evidence of recurrence. Most patients with impingement have resectable tumors and long-term survival is possible if the tumor can be resected.