Preoperative chemoradiotherapy and surgery for locally advanced esophageal basaloid squamous carcinoma: report of successful

A 58-year-old Japanese man complained of dysphagia, and esophagography and endoscopy showed a 7.5-cm-long protruding tumor in his middle esophagus. Biopsy diagnosed the lesion as basaloid squamous carcinoma. We assessed the tumor as T3N0M0 stage II. Preoperative chemoradiotherapy was started, consisting of 3 weeks of intravenous chemotherapy with 10 mg/day cisplatin and 750 mg/day 5-fluorouracil and concurrent total 45-Gy external irradiation applied to the tumor. We evaluated the effectiveness as a partial response and performed curative resection with radical esophagectomy 23 days after the completion of chemoradiotherapy. The pathological findings showed necrosis and degeneration over two-thirds of the tumor. Postoperatively, he returned to physical labor and has had no evidence of recurrence for 5 years. Although basaloid squamous carcinoma of the esophagus is associated with poor prognosis because of its highly malignant potential, preoperative chemoradiotherapy followed by radical esophagectomy may allow for the possibility of improving the prognosis of a fatal process.