Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 7, 2015; 21(33): 9827-9832
Published online Sep 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i33.9827
Giant liposarcoma of the esophagus: A case report
Zhi-Chao Lin, Xiang-Zhen Chang, Xiu-Fang Huang, Chun-Lai Zhang, Geng-Sheng Yu, Shuo-Yun Wu, Min Ye, Jian-Xing He
Zhi-Chao Lin, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Jiangmen Central Hospital, Affiliated Jiangmen Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Jiangmen 529030, Guangdong Province, China
Xiang-Zhen Chang, Editorial Department, Chinese Journal of Microsurgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China
Xiu-Fang Huang, Department of Pathology, Jiangmen Central Hospital, Affiliated Jiangmen Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Jiangmen 529030, Guangdong Province, China
Chun-Lai Zhang, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Jiangmen Central Hospital, Affiliated Jiangmen Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Jiangmen 529030, Guangdong Province, China
Geng-Sheng Yu, Department of Oncology, Jiangmen Central Hospital, Affiliated Jiangmen Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Jiangmen 529030, Guangdong Province, China
Shuo-Yun Wu, Min Ye, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Jiangmen Central Hospital, Affiliated Jiangmen Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Jiangmen 529030, Guangdong Province, China
Jian-Xing He, Department of Thoracic Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: He JX designed the study; Zhang CL analyzed the data; Yu GS and Wu SY studied the relevant literature and reviewed the data; Lin ZC and Huang XF wrote the manuscript; Chang XZ and Ye M edited the manuscript and figures.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Jiangmen Central Hospital Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest related to the publication of this case report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Jian-Xing He, MD, PhD, Department of Thoracic Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, 151 Yanjiang Road West, Guangzhou 510120, Guangdong Province, China. hejx@vip.163.com
Telephone: +86-20-83062114 Fax: +86-20-83395651
Received: January 18, 2015
Peer-review started: January 19, 2015
First decision: April 13, 2015
Revised: May 20, 2015
Accepted: July 3, 2015
Article in press: July 3, 2015
Published online: September 7, 2015
Processing time: 232 Days and 4.5 Hours
Abstract

Liposarcomas rarely develop in the aerodigestive tract. Here, we present a primary esophageal liposarcoma that was discovered between the T3 and T7 levels of the esophagus during right pleural exploration of a 51-year-old male patient. The patient had presented with non-specific symptoms, including progressive dysphagia over the previous 6 mo, without complaints of chest or epigastric pain, regurgitation, or weight loss. A radical three-hole esophagectomy was performed. The tumor was extremely large (14 cm × 7.0 cm × 6.5 cm), but completely encapsulated. Upon histological examination, the tumor was diagnosed as a giant, well-differentiated esophageal liposarcoma with a dedifferentiated component. Non-specific radiological and endoscopic results during the clinical work-up delayed diagnosis until post-operative histology was performed. In this report, the clinical, radiological and endoscopic diagnostic challenges specific to the case are discussed, as well as the surgical and pathological findings.

Keywords: Achalasia; Esophagectomy; Esophagus; Liposarcoma

Core tip: Primary esophageal liposarcoma is an extremely rare malignancy. In this case report, a giant, well-differentiated esophageal liposarcoma with a dedifferentiated component was removed from a 51-year-old male patient. The tumor displayed a non-specific appearance on imaging and endoscopy, which prohibited an accurate diagnosis pre-operatively. Therefore, clinical, radiological, and endoscopic aspects of the case, as well as the surgery and pathology of the tumor, are discussed in detail.