Understanding esophageal cancer

Esophageal cancer is generally a type of carcinoma which develops inside the epithelium or the surface layer of one’s esophagus. It is a type of cancer which is quite easily diagnosed by a number of different tests like the endoscopy, the PET, the CT scan and so on. The symptoms of esophageal cancer unfortunately become clear only in the later stages when a patient has to finally visit the doctor. Initially it can start with just the patient having difficulty swallowing.

Classifications of esophageal cancer: The most common type of esophageal cancer can get classified into two main categories for easy diagnosis: the squamos cell and the adenocarcinoma. The squamos cell type of this disease will occur in the upper half of the esophagus, and the adenocarcinoma will occur in the lower half.

Symptoms of Esophageal Cancer: In the beginning stages, a patient may have just difficulty swallowing but in the latter stages of this disease, the patient will begin to see the problem. The symptoms of esophageal cancer will include odynophagia, that is, pain during swallowing, or what is known as dysphagia, difficulty in swallowing. Difficulty in swallowing might not be easily noticeable as a symptom initially.

A pain that is like heartburn will also be present. It will only worsen if the patient attempts to swallow anything other than soft foods and fluids. This pain will be present daily and regularly and will not be relieved from the basic heartburn medications. Also another symptom is in the proximity of the throat a husky and a raspy cough, which will be the result of the cancer getting advanced to the laryngeal nerve.

 The symptoms of esophageal cancer symptoms may also include nausea, quick loss of weight, vomiting blood, and lack of appetite and along with increased risks of contracting an aspiration related pneumonia.

What would you do after diagnosing the symptoms?

In most of the patients who suffer from esophageal cancer, if the disease is not detected during the early stages through a complete physical and cancer screening, symptoms will not be significant enough for seeing their doctor till a tumor has grown fairly significant in size. Also further complications can arise from the late stage diagnosis of the esophageal cancer including metastasis into the other organs of the body. Esophageal cancer will generally metastasize into the liver, the lung and the lymph nodes.

If this happens then the treatment can get very difficult for the patient.

Prognosis: Chances of prognosis is quite low for this type of cancer. The reason for this is that the patients only learn about the disease when it has reached a quite late stage of development. The cancer during the later stages spreads into other body parts. There are medications to help fight and reduce the spreading of the carcinoma but the chances of survival are quite low. If it is recognised early on and diagnosed then the cancer can get contained.

Hopefully, the information mentioned in this blog will have helped you.