Esophageal cancer can be divided into early esophageal cancer, middle esophageal cancer and advanced esophageal cancer, and the uncomfortable symptoms of patients mainly include: (1) Poststernal pain or subxiphoid pain (often called “heart pain” by patients), the nature of which may be burning, pinching or pulling, and it is especially noticeable when eating rough, burning or irritating food; (2) Difficulty of swallowing (food always feels like it is “in the throat” and cannot go down), which is a symptom that most patients have, especially when eating general food (that is, eating dry and rough food), sometimes it is necessary to drink water to flush it out before swallowing. (food always feels in the “throat”, can not go down, sometimes need to drink water to swallow), this is the vast majority of patients have symptoms, especially when eating food (that is, eating dry rough food) obvious, water and porridge symptoms are not obvious; the occurrence of this symptom is also often associated with the patient’s mood fluctuations, when the mood is not good, the symptoms of heavy. This symptom is also often related to the patient’s mood swings, and the symptoms are more severe when the patient is in a bad mood. (3) Sense of foreign body behind the sternum (it is always feeling that there is something pressing behind the sternum, which can not be swallowed or coughed up, but is not very uncomfortable), and when swallowing saliva or other food, it is always feeling that there is something hanging behind the sternum, which is often a manifestation of esophageal cancer in early stage, and it needs to be vigilant and see the doctor as early as possible; (4) A small number of patients may have the symptom of boring behind the sternum, which is obvious when eating general food (i.e. dry and rough food), drinking food and porridge. (5) Symptoms of advanced stage of esophageal cancer include: when the cancer compresses the recurrent laryngeal nerve, it can cause hoarseness; when it violates the phrenic nerve, it can cause eructation; when it compresses the trachea or bronchus, it can cause shortness of breath and dry cough; when it erodes the aorta, it can cause fatal hemorrhage; when the cancer complicates esophageal-tracheal or esophagobronchial fistulae, or the cancer is located in the upper part of the esophagus, it can cause cervical sympathetic nerve paralytic syndrome when it swallows liquid; and when distant metastasis occurs, it can cause cervical sympathetic nerve palsy. When the cancer is located in the upper esophagus, cervical sympathetic nerve can be produced when swallowing liquid; distant metastasis will have other corresponding symptoms. In a word, esophageal cancer, like other malignant tumors, does not have obvious reaction in the early stage, which is easy to be neglected by patients. If the symptoms mentioned above appear, what department should be consulted? What is the best treatment? At present, the treatment of esophageal cancer is surgery-based comprehensive treatment, which means that those who are able to have surgery and have the chance to have surgery are recommended to have surgery first, and then do radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Generally speaking, surgery is recommended for early and middle stage esophageal cancer, and you need to see thoracic surgery department (some hospitals call it thoracic cardiothoracic surgery department or cardiothoracic surgery department), because for early and middle stage esophageal cancer, surgery is very effective and has high survival rate in the distant future; for middle stage esophageal cancer, surgery is also usually performed first, and then radiotherapy is performed, and radiotherapy and then surgery can also be performed to improve the survival rate. However, advanced esophageal cancer needs direct radiotherapy and you need to see oncology department. If you really can’t figure out what department to see, it is suggested to see thoracic surgery first, and if you can’t be operated the thoracic surgeon will naturally refer you to the oncologist. At present, there is no drug, no method that can completely cure (cure) middle and advanced esophageal cancer, including radiotherapy and chemotherapy (these two methods are mainly to control the growth of cancer and prolong the patient’s life). “Please never believe in advertisements, such as so-and-so drug to attack esophageal cancer, a few courses of treatment can cure it; so-and-so diet therapy to treat esophageal cancer, etc.”, you can be sure that it is a money scam. Be sure to visit regular hospitals to avoid being deceived. Through the above brief introduction, I hope all esophageal cancer patients will not delay their condition and get regular treatment as early as possible.