Clinicopathologic features of gastric cancer infiltrating the lower esophagus.

A total of 211 patients with gastric cancer in the upper third of the stomach were clinicopathologically evaluated. Of the 211 patients, 82 had esophageal infiltration and 129 did not. These two groups were compared. The study on patients who had undergone resection and radioisotope (99mTc-phytate) uptake testing revealed that it was important to dissect the lymph nodes (predominantly nodes 7, 9, 11, and 16) during surgery in the patients with gastric cancer plus esophageal infiltration. When cancer infiltration of the esophagus exceeds 1 cm, the preferred surgical procedure is lower esophagectomy and total gastrectomy with abdominal and intrathoracic lymphadenectomy via the left thoracoabdominal approach. When residual cancer is suggested in the more proximal esophageal stump due to intramural metastasis from vascular invasion, rapid pathologic diagnosis should be made by frozen sections during surgery and then subtotal esophagectomy by blunt removal of the esophagus proximally from the aortic arch using a left thoracotomy considered.