Pharyngitis and esophageal cancer are two very common types of diseases in clinical practice, and the main differences between them are as follows. Pharyngitis is a benign disease, which is caused by local bacterial or viral infection. On the other hand, esophageal cancer is a malignant tumor formed by cancer of the mucosa of esophagus. Patients with pharyngitis often have swelling, pain and hoarseness in the throat. When the lesion of esophageal cancer is small, there may be no obvious clinical symptoms, but as the lesion increases in size, it may block the esophagus and cause swallowing difficulties, loss of appetite and physical wasting. The treatment effect and prognosis are different. Through active anti-infection treatment and reduction of spicy and stimulating food intake, most patients can completely heal and have better treatment effect. On the other hand, patients with esophageal cancer are mostly in the middle and late stages once symptoms appear, and even if surgery is performed to remove the tumor and lymph nodes, the probability of recurrence is very high and the prognosis is relatively poor.