The early cancer of the esophagus was defined as the cancer in which the infiltration was limited as for as the submucosal layer.
In our clinic 13 cases have been found during the past seven years. Among these, one patient had two different lesions throughout the esophagus, so the total number of the lesions were fourteen. One lesion was in the cervical esophagus and thirteen were in the thoracic esophagus. The middle part of the thoracic esophagus was most frequently affected. Males were encountered about two times as many as females. The age distribution corresponded to so-called cancer age. As for the complaints, so-called indefinite complaints referrable to the esophagus were presented by the majority. The size of the cancer based on the resected specimen, was under 3cm in the majority. But a big lesion more than 7cm was seen. Histopathologically, the cancer was of the squamous cell type and the invasion of the cancer reached the submucosal layer in thirteen lesions. Only in one lesion the infiltration was limited to the mucosa. There were some specific findings in the esophagoscopic pattern of early esophageal cancer. Endoscopically the early esophageal cancer was classified into five types; tumorous protruded type, slightly elevated type, flat type, slightly depressed type similar to erosion and excavated type similar to ulceration. When our cases were placed in this classification, 7 were of the tumorous protruded type, 1 of the slightly elevated type, 2 of the erosion forming depressed type and 4 of the ulceration forming excavated type. There has been none of the completely flat type.