Diagnosed with ESSC (squamous cell carcinoma), scheduled for surgery

Are they going to remove part of the esophagus. Scott

Hi Scott, yes the surgeon will remove part of the esophagus and the tumour but not all the tumour that is why it will be a salvage surgery. The surgeon will not cut close to the artery and windpipe .

So I have not had this surgery, mine surgery removed my tumor by removing 20 cm of my esophagus then used part of my stomach for my new esophagus. Wish I could help you with this question. Hopefully someone else can answer this question. Try and keep positive. Wishing you the best. Scott

I’m currently undergoing Radiation & Chemo for
my esophagus cancer located just above the stomach junction. My question is why can your surgeon replace your esophagus with the tumor with part of your stomach
(sounds great) and not having to cut the esophagus in half then pull up your stomach and attach. Your surgery sounds like a great way to have it done.
Most Dr’s say they need to cut out extra because of margins.

So the 20cm they took out also included extra. Also had two surgeons. One surgeon unhooked my stomach from my esophagus also made sure there wasn’t any cancer in my stomach or liver. Also removed nodes to check for cancer. Other surgeon deflated my right lung went through my right side. Removed 20cm of esophagus and then took my stomach and made a new esophagus. It’s been seven months since surgery. Then 4 more chemotherapy rounds. Just had pet scan done cancer free. I’ll get another scan in 6 months. So I can eat small meals. Just eat more often.

Hi from Australia, I think Samantha’s squamous cell carcinoma (usually in the upper esophagous) is different from responder’s adenocarcenoma at the gastric junction - different surgical procedures. Wishing you well.

There is no sense performing an esophagectomy unless the surgeon believes he/she can get it ALL! Esophagectomy is one big ass surgery... no sense putting an EC patient thru this unless there's a CLEAR STATISTICAL BENEFIT for longterm survival odds. This surgery should not be done to just achieve a push... meaning the patient won't see any improvement over just staying on treatments.

The progression towards esophagectomy is that treatments, whether chemo, radiation, immunotherapy... or all of the above... have really knocked our cancer on its ass... rendered it mostly inert... and confined to the esophagus... now is the time to strike and cut it out! But even the surgeon can't know what post-op pathology will show... but he'll do his best to be sure that he goes 3 inches or so above the known top of the esophageal solid tumor to help guarantee clean margins at this end of the removed esophagus. What all the removed lymph nodes will show is still to be determined. But PET/CT scans going into surgery determine if the patient is surgery eligible. The stomach it self is not chopped up to insert into the middle of the esophagus... it is instead cut free of its current location below the diaphragm and is pulled up to connect to what remains of the esophagus. The top portion of the stomach is also removed as the surgical mating process is achieved creating the anastomosis. This is one crazy ass surgery, with vagus nerve branches being severed in the process. But stomach and its blood supply are pulled up together as the stomach now becomes the patient's new esophagus. It works well... although it takes 12 to 24 months for our bodies to re-wire themselves to get the digestion process done in a somewhat satisfactory manner. Have faith... power thru the tummy aches, ass explosions, etc. It comes... just very sloooowly!

What you've set out is the reason I declined surgery. I'm 86, so I have only a few years left, by average standards. I watched my ex-wife go through the surgery and I have a great niece who had to have the same surgery in her 20s because of abuse from an eating disorder. I just chose not to spend my remaining years recuperating from it. I've gone with chemoradiation, and, if I must, I'll fight a rear-guard defense with immunology, etc. Were I a lot younger, I might have decided differently...

Absolutely the right call and reasoning for you. One of my fellow patients on our Zoom calls had his esophagectomy at 82. I was stunned. He's not yet a year post-op (Oct, I think)... but holy crap! Be well sir.

Gary