Esophageal cancer is a common tumor of the digestive tract and kills about 300,000 people worldwide each year. Its incidence and mortality rates vary greatly from country to country. China is one of the regions with high incidence of esophageal cancer in the world, with an average of about 150,000 people dying of the disease every year. In fact, many people often do not have obvious symptoms in the early stage of esophageal cancer, so they often delay the time of early treatment. So what are the symptoms about the early symptoms and middle and late stages of esophageal cancer. Early symptoms of esophageal cancer 1. The symptoms are often not obvious, but there may be different degrees of discomfort when swallowing coarse and hard food, including choking sensation of swallowing food, burning, pinching or pulling and rubbing pain behind the sternum. 2. In the early stage of esophageal cancer, food passes through the esophagus slowly and there is a foreign body sensation, while this symptom will be relieved and disappear after drinking water. The typical symptom of esophageal cancer in the middle and late stages is progressive difficulty in swallowing, firstly, it is difficult to swallow dry food, then semi-liquid food, and finally, water and saliva cannot be swallowed. 2. Often spit mucus-like sputum, which is the secretion of saliva and esophagus from the lower throat. The patient gradually loses weight, becomes dehydrated and weak. 3.Continuous chest pain or back pain indicates advanced symptoms, and the cancer has invaded the extra-esophageal tissues. When the inflammatory edema caused by cancer obstruction temporarily subsides or part of the cancer is detached, the obstruction symptoms can be temporarily reduced, which is often mistaken for improvement. 4. If the cancer invades the recurrent laryngeal nerve, hoarseness may appear; if it compresses the cervical sympathetic ganglion, Horner syndrome may arise.5 If it invades the trachea and bronchus, esophageal, tracheal or bronchial fistula may be formed, and violent choking and coughing when swallowing water or food, and respiratory infection may occur.6 Finally, a cachectic state may appear. If there are liver, brain and other organ metastases, jaundice, peritoneal effusion, coma and other states may occur. Warm tips During physical examination, special attention should be paid to the presence of enlarged lymph nodes on the clavicle, liver masses and signs of distant metastases such as peritoneal effusion and pleural effusion.