Surgical treatment of early esophageal cancer.

Mucosal and submucosal esophageal cancer has been defined as superficial cancer of the esophagus. And superficial cancer without metastasis was defined as early cancer of the esophagus. Of 104 cases of superficial esophageal cancer resected in the past twenty years, 62 were early cancer. The operative mortality rate of supeficial cancer was 1.9%. The 5-year survival rate of early cancer was 62%. Only 14 of 104 cases were mucosal cancer cases. 12 of 14 mucosal cancers belonged to early cancer and no vascular invasion was also recognized in 11 cases. There has been no case died of cancer in the early mucosal cancer. So the detection and surgical treatment of mucosal cancer are mandatory to obtain the excellent results. The endoscopic examination has come to a large role for this purpose.