Esophagectomy for very low body weight: a case report and literature review

TL;DR

This paper reports a successful treatment of a very low body weight patient with advanced esophageal cancer using combined therapy.

Contribution

The case demonstrates that very low body weight should not prevent surgical treatment for esophageal cancer.

Findings

A very low body weight patient with advanced EC was successfully treated with combined therapy.

Malnutrition and low BMI should not be considered contraindications for surgical treatment.

Combined treatment approaches for EC need to be more widely adopted.

Abstract

Esophageal cancer (EC) has been widely concerned because of its high incidence, high mortality and high recurrence rate. However, the traditional surgical treatment of EC has poor prognosis and high recurrence rate. Malnutrition is the most common problem in patients with EC before and after surgery, and it has gradually attracted people’s attention because of its important impact on the efficacy, prognosis and treatment of patients with EC. However, EC patients are often accompanied by malnutrition, and their low BMI is often one of the difficulties in the treatment. Here, we report a very low body weight patient with advanced EC treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy combined with surgery. Our case shows that very low body weight caused by malnutrition should not be a contraindication for surgical treatment, and combined treatment for EC remains to be popularized.

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