Polypoid sarcomas of the esophagus. A rare but potentially curable neoplasm

Abstract

Five patients with polypoid esophageal sarcoma are reported. All had dysphagia similar to that occurring in epithelial carcinoma of the esophagus. The clinical diagnosis of sarcoma was suspected when barium swallow showed a large polypoid lesion. Biopsy was often inconclusive concerning the nature of the lesion except to identify it as a neoplastic process. In spite of their large size, the tumors remained superficial within the esophageal wall. Nodal or distant organ metastasis was absent in 4 of the 5 patients. The histology of these tumors suggests that so-called carcinosarcoma is an epithelial carcinoma of the esophagus with varying amounts of spindle cell features and should be considered separately from sarcoma arising from mesenchymal tissue. Unlike carcinoma, esophageal sarcoma has a favorable prognosis following radical resection, and recent advances in esophageal surgery have decreased the mortality and morbidity of esophagectomy.