Similar Survival after Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection and Esophagectomy in Early Esophageal Cancer and Synchronous or Metachronous Head and Neck Cancer

Background: Early-stage esophageal cancer is treated using endoscopic submucosal dissection and esophagectomy.Field cancerization in patients with early-stage esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) affects treatment outcomes and causes synchronous or metachronous head and neck (H&N) cancer.We hypothesized that esophagectomy could provide better outcome in patients with ESCC and synchronous or metachronous H&N cancer.Methods: We retrospectively identified patients with early esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and synchronous or metachronous H&N cancers.We separated the patients into endoscopic submucosal dissection and esophagectomy groups to compare overall and relapse-free survivals.Results: The study included 106 patients, 25 of whom underwent endoscopic submucosal dissection and 81 underwent esophagectomy.Overall and relapse-free survivals did not show significant differences between the 2 groups for both synchronous and metachronous H&N cancers.Conclusion: Endoscopic submucosal dissection could provide similar overall and relapse-free survivals in patients with esophageal cancer and synchronous or metachronous H&N cancer.