Clinical Investigation of Carcinoma of the Hypopharynx and the Cervical Esophagus

We investigated 159 cases of carcinoma of the hypopharynx and the cervical esophagus (CHCE), 32 cases of abnormal sensitiveness with esophageal web, and 58 cases without esophageal web.The ages of the patients with CHCE on the initial treatment concentrated in the 6th decade, while those over 40 years in the patients of abnormal sensitiveness with esophageal web were the most common, showing a slightly larger number of elderly subjects than in the patients of abnormal sensitiveness without esophageal web.Most of the patients with pyriform sinus cancer (PSC) had a chief complaint of sore throat, hoarseness and odynophagia when the cervical masses increased and advanced, while those with postcricoid cancer (PCC) or posterior wall cancer (PWC) complained of dysphagia or odynophagia. Most of the patients with carcinoma of the cervical esophagus complained of dysphagia, while those with abnormal sensitiveness in the pharyngolarynx complained of sensitiveness to foreign bodies or zonesthesia.The period of suffering lasted two or three months in most cases of PSC and PCC, while it was four or five months in most cases of PWC and carcinoma of the cervical esophagus. Moreover, the duration of suffering in the patients of abnormal sensitiveness without esophageal web was usually less than one month, while that in the patients of abnormal sensitiveness with esophageal web was long, two or three months.Hemoglobin in the blood had the lowest value in the patients of abnormal sensitiveness without esophageal web, and 18.4% of the patients with postcricoid cancer showed less than 10μg/dl of hemoglobin, while the other cancerous patients showed values within the normal range.The patients of abnormal sensitiveness with esophageal web and patients with PCC showed lower values of serum iron than the other cancerous patients.The incidence of hypopharyngeal web was 1.93% of 2, 280 patients who had visited our hospital with a complaint of abnormal pharyngeal sensitiveness, while it was high in CHCE; 20.0% in PSC, 27.9% in PCC and 14.3% in PWC and carcinoma of the cervical esophagus.