I. Symptoms and abnormal sensations: 1. Choking sensation when swallowing: when swallowing food, especially when taking large bites or eating dry and hard food, there is a sluggish, stagnant or slight choking sensation: as the symptoms are extremely mild and do not prevent eating, they can also occur intermittently; if they recur frequently and have a gradually increasing sensation, attention should be paid to them.
2.Posterior sternal pain: About 1/3 of the patients will have posterior sternal pain of different degrees when swallowing or eating. Such as swallowing saliva or eating, always feel a burst of pain behind the sternum. After swallowing, this sensation can gradually subside. The site of pain is sometimes quite vague.
3. Foreign body sensation in the esophagus: It often feels as if there are residual rice grains, vegetable crumbs, pills, etc. attached to the wall of the esophagus, and this feeling does not disappear even after drinking and swallowing. About 1/10 patients had this symptom in the early stage, which was caused by swelling of the mucosal wall of the esophagus, local congestion, epithelial thickening or roughness.
4.Other abnormal sensation: Some patients with early esophageal cancer may also have vague pain under the raphe, dull pain, post-sternal stuffiness, self-conscious “stomach” discomfort, pain in the throat and other discomfort.
Important concomitant conditions – high-risk groups: 1. other digestive symptoms; 2. family history of esophageal cancer and gastric cancer; 3. patients with esophageal mucosal epithelial atypical hyperplasia (especially severe atypical hyperplasia), barrett’s esophagus or chronic reflux esophagitis found during previous gastroscopy; 4. patients with unknown causes of Bleeding in the esophagus or stomach, positive gastric fluid or stool occult blood test; 5, people who like to drink liquor, smoke, long-term smoking plus alcohol, frequent consumption of fermented moldy sauerkraut, moldy food, lack of vitamin C, vitamin B, carotene, etc.
6, from areas with high incidence of esophageal cancer and cardia cancer, or living in these areas for a long time.
7.People with cancer personality tendency such as mental and emotional depression, frequent anger, high suspicion psychology, etc.
For those who have 2-3 items above, it is highly recommended to go to hospital for necessary examinations, such as gastroscopy, upper gastrointestinal tract imaging, etc., in order to exclude or clarify whether there is early esophageal cancer.