Neoplastic precursor lesions of the upper gastrointestinal tract

Plummer-Vinson syndrome: A decade's experience of 132 cases from a single center

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Plummer-Vinson syndrome (PVS) comprises triad of iron deficiency anemia, dysphagia, and post-cricoid esophageal web. PVS is rare nowadays due to improved nutritional status. However, we encountered patients with PVS regularly at our center. Data regarding PVS are limited; hence, we aimed to study the clinical features, treatment outcomes, and development of complications in patients with PVS.

METHODS

The study was conducted over a 10-year period (January 2008 to January 2018) in a medical college setting. All adults with dysphagia, anemia, and post-cricoid web or those with iron deficiency anemia and post-cricoids web were included in the study. Patients were treated with iron supplementation and Savary-Gilliard bougie dilation of the web. Patients were followed-up for the recurrence of dysphagia and development of complications.

RESULTS

Overall, 153 patients exhibited esophageal web, of which 132 (86.27%) patients had concomitant PVS and 21 (13.7%) patients did not. The mean age was 43.50 years (range 16-76) and 113 (85.6%) were women. Single session of Savary-Gilliard bougie dilation was successful in 90.7% of patients in relieving dysphagia and 9.3% developed recurrence, requiring repeated dilations. Four patients had concomitant squamous cell carcinoma of esophagus along with PVS and two developed upper gastrointestinal malignancy during follow-up.

CONCLUSION

Plummer-Vinson syndrome is predominantly seen in middle aged women and present with symptoms of iron deficiency anemia and early grade dysphagia. Single session of Savary-Gilliard bougie dilation was successful in majority of patients in relieving dysphagia. Overall risk of developing upper gastrointestinal malignancy was 4.5%.

Foveolar type dysplasia in Barrett esophagus

Adenocarcinoma of the lower esophagus and esophagogastric junction is increasing in incidence in Western countries. A metaplasia (Barrett esophagus)-dysplasia-carcinoma sequence induced by gastroesophageal reflux disease is established. Two patterns of Barrett dysplasias have been described-adenomatous (type 1) and non-adenomatous (type 2 or foveolar/hyperplastic type). Interestingly, little is known about non-adenomatous dysplasia. Esophagogastrectomy cases from 41 patients with glandular dysplasia with and without associated invasive adenocarcinoma of the lower esophagus were evaluated for expression of MUC2, MUC5AC, CDX2, villin, Ki67 and p53. Results were correlated with sub-classification of the dysplasia into morphologic patterns of adenomatous vs foveolar vs hybrid type. In addition, clinicopathological parameters including the presence and extent of background intestinal metaplasia were also evaluated. Foveolar type dysplasia was present in 46% of the cases and thus, was more common than adenomatous type or hybrid type (both approximately 27%) dysplasia. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the histological stratification in all cases. Foveolar type dysplasia commonly expressed MUC5AC (P<0.12) but was consistently negative for markers of intestinal differentiation, MUC2, CDX2 and villin (all P<0.01). By contrast, adenomatous type dysplasia frequently displayed intestinal differentiation markers (all P<0.0001) Hybrid-type dysplasia was similar to adenomatous type dysplasia in showing expression of intestinal differentiation markers (P<0.01) and therefore could not be sustained as a separate category. In conclusion, our study provides evidence for a non intestinal pathway to neoplastic development in Barrett esophagus, that is, gastric metaplasia-foveolar dysplasia-adenocarcinoma.