”A good diet is the only way to have a healthy body. Occasionally, choking may occur once or twice when eating because it is caused by careless eating, so you don’t need to pay attention to it and it will be fine naturally after resting. However, if it occurs frequently and has a tendency to get progressively worse, you must pay great attention to it and go to the hospital for examination as soon as possible. If mild choking (i.e. difficulty in swallowing), slight foreign body sensation or burning sensation behind the sternum occurs when swallowing, it should be taken seriously because it may be the early manifestation of esophageal cancer. These symptoms are always intermittent and easy to be ignored by patients, who often mistakenly think that they are choking too fast and do not pay attention to them, so that they only remember to go to hospital when they develop into progressive dysphagia, which may be in the middle or late stage of tumor. Epidemiological survey shows that the occurrence of esophageal cancer is related to smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, nitrite compounds, moldy food, chronic inflammation of esophagus and bad eating habits. The clinical symptoms of esophageal cancer are mainly progressive dysphagia, which starts with choking sensation when swallowing solid food, and later develops into difficulty in swallowing thin rice, liquid food, water and even saliva. In the advanced stage, it may show cachexia, hoarseness, choking and coughing, weight loss, anemia and other cachexia symptoms. So what tests should be done when you suspect a problem with the esophagus? First of all, gastroscopy should be done to observe the changes of esophageal mucosa through endoscopy, and to take the lesion for pathological examination to clarify the diagnosis. Then, upper gastrointestinal tract imaging and chest CT are performed to clarify the location, size, and condition of the esophagus and surrounding tissues.