Common presenting symptoms of Lung cancer are cough, hemoptysis, chest pain, dyspnea, pleurisy. Dysphagia is a very uncommon presenting feature of Lung cancer. Incidence of Dysphagia in Lung cancer is unclear from Literature. Causes of Dysphagia in case of Lung cancer are Anatomically classified as Oropharyngeal and Esophageal. Causes of oropharyngeal dysphagia are oral candidiasis, oropharyngeal Metastasis of Lung cancer. Causes of esophageal dysphagia are Cervical or Mediastinal Lymphadenopathy, Motor dysfunction because of Brain stem Metastasis, Lambert eaton syndrome, Esophageal candidiasis, Radiation esophagitis. Here by we present an Unusual presentation of an aggressive disease, poorly differentiated SCLC presenting as Mid esophageal dysphagia secondary to extrinsic esophageal compression.
65 year old female with past medical history of Diabetes, Hypertension presented with complaints of worsening sub sternal chest pain radiating to back since last 2 days and progressive dysphagia. Pt underwent Left heart catheterization revealing non obstructive coronary artery disease. Modified Barium swallow showed stasis of contrast in mid esophagus, Endoscopy showed extrinsic compression of the proximal esophagus, normal mucosa. Computerized tomography of chest was done for further evaluation, revealing extensive left cervical, mediastinal, left hilar lymphadenopathy causing extrinsic compression of the esophagus and encasement of the left hilar structures. Further evaluation through Bronchoscopic biopsy of her left upper lobe mass reveals poorly differentiated small cell carcinoma. Staging was performed revealing limited stage disease. Started on concurrent chemotherapy with cisplatin, etoposide and radiation. As SCLC is highly responsive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy sensitive patient got symptomatic relief by the end of first cycle.
SCLC is an aggressive lung cancer. As it is a micro metastatic disease in nature at presentation, it’s management is entirely different from Non SCLC. SCLC being an aggressive disease can cause dysphagia in 1-2% during the disease course. SCLC presenting as dysphagia is almost never reported in the literature. Our patient presented with severe dysphagia, described it as “a tennis ball sitting in her food pipe”. Fortunately she presented to the Emergency room with dysphagia and associated chest pain, we were able to make early diagnosis of SCLC, initiate treatment. Delay in the diagnosis lead to rapid progression of disease and poor prognosis. Through our case we wanted to convey that it is very important to obtain meticulous history, keeping broad differentials, which can help improve prognosis. Because not always the presenting features are from the organ of involvement it could be from the contiguous spread or compression.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-1264 |
| Date | 12 April 2019 |
| Creators | Moka, Nagaishwarya, Nukavarapu, Manisha, Phemister, Jennifer, Jason, Mckinney |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum |
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