TAE was oncologically feasible. Perioperative factors affected survival in the whole cohort, but did not in the THLE subgroup. However, the reduced perioperative factor effect in this subgroup would be small because the survival rates of the 2 surgical approaches were equal.

No abstract

Esophageal gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are very rare. We herein report our experience of three cases of esophageal GISTs. Two women and one man were treated by radical surgery either by thoracoscopic or by thoracotomy and thereafter followed up. Both histopathological and immunohistochemical analyses of tissue specimens showed positive findings for c-kit, which confirmed the diagnosis of GISTs. The malignancy of GISTs remains a clinical problem, and various indicators for the risk for recurrence or metastasis have been reported, such as tumor size, mitotic index, and mutation of the c-kit gene. As the tumor size was markedly large in two cases whereas the other had a high mitotic level, they are thought to have malignant potential. Because all three patients have demonstrated a disease-free status for at least 25 months, surgical therapy seems to be sufficient for such patients. However, further long-term follow-up may be necessary.

A 53-year-old woman presented to our hospital with a 2-year history of dysphagia. A barium esophagogram showed a filling defect and a gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed a soft and smooth faced submucosal mass in the cervical esophagus. Contrast-enhanced chest CT scan revealed a cystic mass without enhancement effect in the cervical esophagus. FDG-PET showed no abnormal uptake of FDG. The mass was surgically excised by cervical esophagotomy. The resected specimen showed a multilocular cyst that measured 64 by 22 mm containing viscous fluid and was histophathologically diagnosed as a retention cyst of the esophageal gland. Esophageal cyst is rare and its incidence is reported to be one of 8,200 cases by an autopsy study. Esophageal cysts are predominantly congenital cysts such as duplication and bronchogenic cysts, and acquired cysts or esophageal retention cysts are extremely rare. This is only the 9th case of esophageal retention cyst. We present a case report and literature review. Key words：esophageal retention cyst，esophageal submucosal tumor，esophageal benign tumor

Objective: The aim of this study was to reveal the factors that influence the prognosis of esophageal cancer patients, especially from the other causes than esophageal cancer in the follow-up period after esophagectomy.Method: All of 523 patients with esophageal carcinoma who underwent esophagectomy in a single institute between 1986 and 1999 were followed-up until the end of October 2003. Their prognoses were reviewed and compared by the presence of pre/post-operative radiation, pre/post-operative chemotherapy, surgical procedure, and pathological stages of tumors as well as preoperative general conditions by uni-and multivariate analyses.Results: Univariate analysis revealed that sex (male against female) ( p ¼ 0:005), abnormality on ECG ( p ¼ 0:012), and the presence of preoperative radiation ( p ¼ 0:016) significantly increased the incidence of nonesophageal cancer death; on the other hand, thoracoscopic approach decreased the incidence of non-esophageal cancer death. Multivariate analyses revealed that the presence of preoperative radiation significantly increased mortality due to non-esophageal cancer causes to a 3.70 hazard ratio (95% CI [95% Confidence Interval]; 1.33-10.61).Conclusions: This study clearly showed the late effect of preoperative radiation for carcinoma of the esophagus on the postoperative prognosis, especially in terms of later mortality from causes other than esophageal carcinoma.