MALIGNANT-TUMORS OF THE CERVICAL ESOPHAGUS

Forty-seven patients with malignancy of the cervical oesophagus are de scribed and compared with a group of 647 patients with hypopharyngeal malignancy. There was a higher proportion of non-squamous malignancy i n cervical oesophageal cancer compared with hypopharyngeal cancer. Cer vical oesophageal malignancy tended to present earlier with significan tly lower T stage and neck node metastases were relatively unusual at presentation. Patients with cervical oesophageal malignancy were frequ ently incurable at the time they are first seen and 21 had palliative treatment only, 26 patients had curative treatment, 12 underwent radic al radiotherapy and 14 had surgery. Cervical oesophageal malignancy ha d a significantly worse prognosis than hypopharyngeal malignancy with an 18% 3 year survival compared with a 33% 3 year survival (chi(1)(2) = 7.1089, P < 0.01). Those patients with oesophageal malignancy who we re treated fared considerably better than the whole group with 30% bei ng alive at 3 years (chi(1)(2) = 10.5185, P < 0.01).