Verrucous carcinoma of the esophagus: A case report and literature review

Verrucous carcinoma of the esophagus is a variant of a squamous cell cancer. Our case is a 78-year-old male patient comes in with the dysphagia and weight loss, and on endoscopy (EGD) he is found to have an irregular intraluminal mass at the distal esophagus. With the deep EGD assisted biopsy, diagnosis of the verrucous carcinoma is made. Due to multiple co morbidities and possible infiltration to the pericardium, patient is taken for the esophageal stent placement and is being referred for the chemo-radiation treatment. The diagnosis can be very difficult to make with the superficial biopsies due to very non specific histological changes and requires very high clinical suspicion and deep mucosal biopsies are required for accurate diagnosis of the tumor. Chronic and local disease process is the main risk factor for the development of the verrucous carcinoma of the esophagus. Surgery is the treatment of the choice for the early stage tumor and advanced cases are treated with the palliation and possibly chemo-radiation. The prognosis is usually guarded and needs long term follow up. (c) 2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.