The frequency of a concomitant early esophageal cancer in male patients with oral and oropharyngeal cancer. Screening results using lugol dye endoscopy

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Abstract
Background. Male patients with oral and oropharyngeal cancer are known to have high risk of concomitant esophageal cancer developing. Thus, mass screening programs are pursued to detect such esophageal cancer early, and in a mass screening trial of patients with early oral and oropharyngeal cancer, the efficacy of Lugol dye endoscopy for detecting concomitant esophageal cancers has been evaluated. Methods. Lugol dye was used in an endoscopic screening of 101 patients with oral cancer and 26 with oropharyngeal cancer; all of the patients were men. Results. Among these 127 patients, eight (6.3%) clinical asymptomatic concomitant esophageal cancers were detected, and four of these eight cancers were found in the patients with oropharyngeal cancer. Five of these eight superficial lesions could not be detected by ordinary endoscopy or barium study. Conclusion. Our results show that Lugol dye endoscopy is indispensable for monitoring male patients with oral or oropharyngeal cancer to detect an early concomitant esophageal cancer. In addition, a higher frequency of concomitant esophageal cancer was seen in the patients with oropharyngeal cancer than in the patients with oral cancer. Cancer 1994; 73:2038–41.