1.Esophageal cancer early symptoms 1.Choking sensation in the throat is the most common, which can disappear or recur on its own and does not affect eating. It often occurs when the patient’s mood fluctuates, so it is easily mistaken for functional symptoms. 2.Post-sternal and subxiphoid pain is more common. When swallowing food, there is pain behind the sternum or subsynovial pain, the nature of which can be burning, stabbing or pulling, with the swallowing of rough, burning or irritating food as the most important. Initially, it is intermittent, but when the cancer invades the nearby tissues or penetrates, there can be severe and continuous pain. The site of pain often does not exactly correspond to the site of lesion in the esophagus. The pain can be temporarily relieved by antispasmodics. 3, food retention infection and foreign body sensation when swallowing food or water, there is a feeling of slow downward movement of food and stagnation, as well as a feeling of tightness behind the sternum or food adhering to the esophageal wall, etc., which disappears after eating. The site of the symptoms is mostly the same as the site of the lesion in the esophagus. 4. Dryness and tightness in the throat is especially obvious when swallowing dry and rough food, and the occurrence of this symptom is often related to the patient’s mood swings. 5.Other symptoms: a few patients may have posterior sternal stuffiness and discomfort, anterior pain and sciatic base. 1.Mid-term esophageal cancer symptoms: 1.Choking sensation in the throat is the most common, which can disappear and recur spontaneously and does not affect eating. It often occurs when the patient’s mood fluctuates, so it is easily mistaken for functional symptoms. 2.Post-sternal and subxiphoid pain is more common. When swallowing food, there is pain behind the sternum or subsynovial pain, the nature of which can be burning-like, pinprick-like or pulling-like, with the swallowing of rough, burning or irritating food as the focus. The pain may be intermittent at first, but when the cancer invades the nearby tissues or penetrates, there may be severe and continuous pain. The site of pain often does not exactly correspond to the site of lesion in the esophagus. The pain can be temporarily relieved by antispasmodics. 3, food retention infection and foreign body sensation when swallowing food or water, there is a feeling of slow downward movement of food and stagnation, as well as a feeling of tightness behind the sternum or food adhering to the esophageal wall, etc., which disappears after eating. The site of the symptoms is mostly the same as the site of the lesion in the esophagus. 4. Dryness and tightness in the throat is especially obvious when swallowing dry and rough food, and the occurrence of this symptom is often related to the patient’s mood swings. 5.Other symptoms: a few patients may have post-sternal stuffiness and discomfort, anterior pain and Coelho (19): progressive dysphagia, post-sternal pain and mucus-like sputum when swallowing. Progressive dysphagia is the main symptom of most patients when they visit the clinic, but it is the late manifestation of the disease. Because the wall of esophagus is elastic and expandable, dysphagia only appears when about 2/3 of the circumference of esophagus is infiltrated by cancer. Therefore, after the appearance of early symptoms mentioned above, the disease gradually worsens within a few months, from inability to swallow solid food to inability to swallow liquid food as well. If the cancer is accompanied by inflammation, edema and spasm of the esophageal wall, the difficulty in swallowing may be aggravated. The location of the obstruction often conforms to the site of the cancer. 2.Food reaction often appears when the difficulty in swallowing is aggravated, and the reflux volume is not large, containing food and mucus, but also blood and pus. 3.Other symptoms can cause hoarseness when the cancer presses the recurrent laryngeal nerve; invasion of phrenic nerve can cause eruption or phrenic nerve paralysis; compression of trachea or bronchus can cause shortness of breath and dry cough; erosion of aorta can produce fatal bleeding. If the cancer is located in the upper esophagus, cervical sympathetic nerve palsy may occur when swallowing liquid.