Association of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with cancer of the esophagus

Squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus and multiple primary tumors of the upper aerodigestive tract

“…The reported incidence of esophageal carcinoma associated with multiple primary squamous cell carcinomas of the upper aerodigestive tract in series of head and neck tumor patients varies from 0% to 6.3% (1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,17,18,19,22,25) ( Table 2). Furthermore, the incidence of multiple primary tumors in series of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus ranged from 3.3% to 12.4% (2,4,9,20,21,24) ( Table 3).…”

Carcinomas of the Esophagus with Synchronous or Metachronous Primary Carcinoma in other Organs

“…Many authors emphasize the importance of tobacco and alcohol as carcinogenic factors for malignant tumors of the oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus (WYNDER & BROSS 1961, WYNDER et coll. 1977, GOLDSTEIN & ZORNOZA 1978. Radiation could in the present series not be of etiologic importance for the development of the esophageal tumors, as the esophagus was not irradiated in any of the patients and as the time interval between the detection of the first primary and the esophageal tumor was not long enough.…”

Synchronous and Metachronous Malignancies in Patients with Primary Carcinomas of the Esophagus and Cardia

“…Multiple synchronous primaries were defined as those malignancies developing in different organs, first diagnosed during hospitalization for the esophageal carcinoma. Also, a second pri mary diagnosed within a year after treatment of the esophageal carcinoma and an esophageal tumor found within a year after treatment of malignancies in different organs were considered as synchronous [12]. Multiple metachronous primaries were defined …”

“…Wynder et al [10] and Pradoura [7] suggest that the mucosa of the upper aerodigestive tract, being exposed to the same carcinogenic factors, may behave as a unique organ where cancer development can be multicentric. Furthermore, immunologic impairment [11] and starva tion of these cancer patients may promote the synchro nous development of carcinomas in other organs; and the prolonged survival of some patients after treatment for malignant tumors may allow the development of metachronous tumors [2,12],…”