As malignant tumors occur in the esophagus, the early symptoms are not obvious and the patient can have non-specific symptoms such as wasting, weakness, anemia, etc. As the disease progresses and the tumor in the esophagus gradually increases in size, it can lead to narrowing of the lumen, which can lead to choking sensation in eating, with difficulty in swallowing, inability to eat coarse, large pieces of food, requiring forceful swallowing or swallowing with water. Large mouthfuls of water can also be impaired. As the disease progresses and the esophagus becomes extremely narrow, it can eventually progress to eating, difficulty drinking, and frequent vomiting, and the patient can become extremely thin and cachectic due to nutritional deficiencies.
For early detection of the disease, whenever eating does not feel good, you need to see a gastroenterologist promptly for examination, either to make a barium meal or to do an esophagoscopy. For suspected areas, local tissue can be taken for pathological biopsy, which can provide timely information on whether malignant lesions have occurred in the esophagus and the pathological classification of cancer cells, which can guide the next step of treatment.
Esophageal cancer in early or mid-stage, because there is no distant metastasis, is better to have surgery in time. If the cancer is large, you can also do chemotherapy for a period of time and wait until the cancer becomes smaller to do surgery, which will be more effective.