Gastroesophageal cancer and retroperitoneal fibrosis: Two case reports and review of the literature

Retroperitoneal fibrosis secondary to malignant disease is a rare condition associated with a dismal prognosis. We herein present the first ever reported case of ret-roperitoneal fibrosis related to esophageal adenocarcinoma in a 63-year-old patient who developed bilateral ureteral obstruction due to extensive retroperitoneal fibrosis 18 mo after having completed neoadjuvant chemoradation followed by surgery for a pT3N0 ad-enocarcinoma of the distal esophagus. We also report the case of a previously healthy woman who presented with bilateral ureteral obstruction and diffuse narrowing of the common biliary duct and was found to have extensive retroperitoneal fibrosis as a consequence of metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma. Both patients had poor performance status and were unsuitable for pallia-tive chemotherapy. This paper shows that urinary and biliary obstructive symptoms might represent retroperi-toneal fibrosis as a consequence of gastroesophageal malignancy.