Acute pharyngitis is an acute inflammation of the mucous membrane, submucous and lymphatic tissues of the throat, most common in winter and spring, usually caused by viruses or bacteria. Most of the cases are secondary to acute rhinitis, acute sinusitis, and acute tonsillitis. The onset of the disease is often preceded by cold, fatigue, stimulation by chemical gases or dust, excessive smoking and other triggers, which can easily lead to the disease due to the lowering of the body’s immunity. Acute pharyngitis is often caused by cold, excessive fatigue, excessive smoking and alcohol, etc., resulting in a decline in systemic and local resistance, pathogenic microorganisms to take advantage of the disease. The pathogenic microorganisms are mainly caused by rhinovirus, adenovirus, influenza and parainfluenza virus, etc. Some patients may be caused by Streptococcus haemolyticus or S. pneumoniae. Clinical manifestations Acute onset, initial dryness and burning of the pharynx, followed by pain, aggravated by swallowing and coughing, and hoarseness, difficulty in speaking, sometimes accompanied by fever, general malaise, joint pain, headache and loss of appetite. On examination, the mucous membrane of oropharynx and nasopharynx is diffusely congested and swollen, the palatal arch and the pendulous pituitary are edematous, the lymphatic follicles in the posterior pharyngeal wall and the lateral wall of pharynx are red and swollen. The typical clinical manifestation of esophageal cancer in the middle and late stages is progressive dysphagia, but the early manifestation of esophageal cancer lacks specificity and can be foreign body sensation in the throat, foreign body attachment in the throat, incomplete swallowing, pulling sensation in swallowing and other manifestations similar to pharyngolaryngitis, etc. In clinical work, we have seen many patients who initially had the above-mentioned atypical manifestations and then went to ENT department. Some patients were misdiagnosed as pharyngitis and some even underwent tonsillectomy. Some of them stopped the treatment when they did not see any obvious abnormality after laryngoscopy, unaware that esophageal cancer had already developed to the middle and late stage when they had typical dysphagia, which seriously increased the treatment burden and affected the efficacy. Therefore, patients with the above mentioned symptoms should be alerted to the possibility of esophageal cancer and should undergo upper gastrointestinal imaging or esophagoscopy to exclude esophageal cancer.