Background
Verrucous carcinoma of the esophagus (VCE) is a rare tumor that is difficult to diagnose. In most cases, biopsies show nonspecific inflammatory and hyperkeratotic changes and do not show malignant findings. Most VCEs are slowly growing, locally advanced tumors with few metastases. Treatments for VCE are the same as for normal esophageal cancer, involving combined chemotherapy, surgical resection, and radiation therapy. However, it has been reported that VCE has a poor response to radiation or chemoradiotherapy (CRT). A case of VCE with complete response (CR) after CRT is presented.
Case presentation
A 70-year-old man was found to have white, irregular esophageal mucosa four years earlier. He had been followed-up as an outpatient as having candidal esophagitis. However, his tumor grew gradually, and biopsy was performed by endoscopic mucosal resection. He was finally diagnosed with VCE. He had no metastases to distant organs, but some lymph node metastases were suspected. The tumor invaded his left bronchus. First, the esophagostomy and gastrostomy were constructed. The patient then underwent definitive CRT. Four weeks after the end of CRT, two-stage esophagectomy was performed. First, he underwent esophagectomy with thoracic lymph node dissection. A latissimus dorsi flap was patched to the bronchus after primary suture of the hole. Six weeks later, reconstruction of the gastric tube was performed through the antethoracic route. The pathological findings showed complete response to CRT, with no proliferative cancer cells in the specimen. Six months after the first-stage operation, no recurrence has been observed.
Conclusions
A case of locally advanced VCE that achieved a complete response to CRT was presented. In cases in which local resection would be difficult, CRT might be an appropriate neoadjuvant treatment for VCE.