Esophageal Stenosis in a Patient with Breast Cancer after Chemotherapy: A Case Report and Review of Literature

Introduction: Esophageal stenosis after chemotherapy in breast cancer patients is rare. It is important to distinguish esophageal stenosis from esophageal metastasis caused by breast cancer.Case presentation: We present the case of a 62-year-old woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer 4 months prior, had dysphagia and was referred to our department for further treatment after 2 cycles of chemotherapy. She suffered from severe mouth ulcers, painful swallowing and large areas of skin pigmentation with overlying scaliness after every chemotherapy session. Endoscopy revealed that the lumen of the lower esophagus was obviously narrow with ulceration above the stenosis. Histological results demonstrated inflammatory fibrinous necrosis and granulation tissue, with no clear neoplastic component. Conclusion: Short-term esophageal stenosis after chemotherapy may be caused by local mucosal injury, but malignant tumors need to be excluded.