Adenocarcinoma of the Cardioesophageal Junction

Adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction has merited special consideration in the surgical literature because of its insidious behavior and ominous prognosis. Some authors have considered this tumor together with squamous cell tumors of the esophagus, but this is undoubtedly ill-advised, as Garlock points out.14Adenocarcinoma of the cardioesophageal junction is associated with a characteristic greater submucosal invasion of the esophagus at the time of exploration than the squamous cell variety and tends to metastasize distantly at an earlier date than does the squamous tumor. This report deals with the ten-year experience from January, 1950, through December, 1959, of the University of Chicago hospitals and clinics with adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction. The patient group is composed of 40 patients, all of whom had a histologic diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the cardioesophageal junction. We arbitrarily have classified these tumors as occurring in the distal third of the esophagus or in