Over a 10-year period, systematic bi-annual esophageal endoscopy uncovered metachronous esophageal tumors in 3.2% of 1560 patients originally treated for head and neck carcinoma, developing in a median time of 47 months. Patients with initial oropharyngeal tumors had a significantly higher risk of metachronous esophageal SCC, compared to the other tumor sites (P < 0.02 with Fisher exact test). Given the elevated death rate not related to the esophageal cancer and the median survival of 16 months, any potential benefit from this time-consuming procedure is debatable.

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