Routine endoscopy of the esophagus in buccal, pharyngeal and laryngeal cancers
Andrieu-Guitancourt, J.; Brossard-Legrand, M.; Happich, J.L.; Lamy, J.M.
Annales d'Oto-Laryngologie et de Chirurgie Cervico Faciale Bulletin de la Societe d'Oto-Laryngologie des Hopitaux de Paris 92(12): 659-666
1975
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-438X PMID: 1225106 Document Number: 86483
We practiced a systematic endoscopy of the upper part of the aero-digestive tract on 160 patients suffering from a cancer in the mouth, the pharynx and the upper part of the larynx. This unit, going from the mouth to the cardia does really exist: it has the same epithelial coating, the same function and is liable to suffer the same damages. It is the seat of many well-known cancerous localizations that always need to be searched for on principle when face to face with any cancer. The endoscopic examination so conceived allowed the authors to find a cancerous association on the very level of the upper sero-digestive tract among 14 per cent of the patients; 4 out of these 14 per cent having oesophageal damages impossible to detect clinically on one hand, and often radiologically on the other hand. Morever, 3 out of 7 of lesions were tiny: from 1 to 3 millimetres, extending the limits of the diagnosis of the cancer of the aesophagus and perhaps leaving better therapeutic possibilities.