Esophageal Cancer Associated with Gastric Cancer

Among a total of 1,137 patients with esophageal cancer, therewere 44 cases of esophageal cancer associated with gastric cancer,an incidence of 3.9%. The majority of the patients were between60 and 70 yr old. Forty-two patients were male and two werefemale. Eleven of these patients had a third cancer. Six had multiplecancers in the esophagus and/or stomach. Eighteen patients hadearly gastric cancer. Thirty-two of the cancers were synchronousand 12 were metachronous. Of these 44 patients, 21 had familyhistories of cancer, 37 were smokers, and 36 were drinkers.Twenty-five patients received surgery for all of their cancers,and two patients received resection of only esophageal cancer.Of these 27 patients. five patients lived more than 5 yr. Themost frequent cause of death in our series was esophageal cancer(52.9%). Surgical treatment of all of the cancers is desirable. Whenthis is impossible, the surgery must be emphasized for the esophagealcancer in most cases.