Successful resection of oesophageal adenocarcinoma 16 years after heart transplantation—a case report

INTRODUCTION: With improving results of heart transplantation and subsequently increasing survival, long-term complications such as neoplastic malignancies are more often being discovered. PRESENTATION OF CASE: In this report, we present a unique case of successful oesophagus resection with gastric pull-up, on a heart-transplanted patient diagnosed with oesophageal adenocarcinoma. DISCUSSION: With the growing number of long-term surviving heart transplanted patients, the number of neoplasia in this patient-group will subsequently grow. Since physical condition and quality of life in long-term surviving heart transplanted patients is comparable to the general population, and since surgical treatment remains the mainstay of treatment for localised oesophageal carcinoma in non-heart transplanted patients, a larger subgroup of heart transplanted patients will most likely be considered for cancer surgery. CONCLUSION: Our case demonstrates the possibility of operating on the heart transplanted patient-group, and supports the option, that well-managed heart transplantation not should be a limiting factor, when deciding whether a patient is a candidate for surgical intervention or not.