What are the symptoms of esophageal cancer? You can do this to prevent esophageal cancer

What are the symptoms of esophageal cancer?

Let's talk about the symptoms related to esophageal cancer that we should be alert to. First of all, we must emphasize here that the gold standard for diagnosing esophageal cancer is still endoscopy and pathological examination. The following symptoms are just to remind us to be alert to the possibility of esophageal cancer and further examination is needed to confirm the diagnosis.

First, let’s talk about the early signs of esophageal cancer. If you have the following symptoms, you need to pay attention:

1. After eating, there will be a feeling of choking, tightness in the throat, and a foreign body sensation in the esophagus;

2. When swallowing dry or rough food, there is a feeling of dryness and urgency in the throat;

3. When swallowing food, the food passes through the esophagus slowly and is accompanied by a feeling of retention;

4. When swallowing food, there is a feeling of stuffiness or pain behind the sternum.

Here we need to emphasize a symptom again, that is, patients with esophageal cancer will first have difficulty swallowing solid food, and then develop difficulty swallowing liquid food . This is also the most typical symptom of esophageal cancer and the reason for frequent visits to the doctor. This symptom is called "progressive dysphagia" and is a manifestation of symptoms of mid-to-late stage esophageal cancer. Dysphagia will only occur when the mucosa of esophageal cancer is diseased and the lesions invade 2/3 of the esophagus.

Therefore, we should pay attention to the early signs of esophageal cancer instead of just focusing on whether it causes choking or not, so as to avoid letting esophageal cancer progress to the middle and late stages.

How to prevent esophageal cancer

First, high-risk groups should be screened regularly. According to the "Guidelines for Screening, Early Diagnosis and Early Treatment of Esophageal Cancer in China (2024)", high-risk groups for esophageal cancer are those aged ≥ 45 years and meet any of the following conditions:

1. Living in areas with a high incidence of esophageal cancer (defined by county-level administrative districts);

2. First-degree relatives such as parents, children, and siblings have a history of esophageal cancer;

3. People with bad eating habits and lifestyles, such as hot and spicy food, high-salt food, pickled food, smoking, heavy drinking, etc.;

4. Patients with chronic esophagitis, Barrett's esophagus, esophageal diverticulum, achalasia, reflux esophagitis, benign esophageal stricture, etc.

5. Have a history of diagnosis and treatment of esophageal precancerous lesions.

In addition, it is particularly important to emphasize the harm of drinking. When alcohol passes through the esophagus, the esophageal mucosa will be directly and strongly stimulated. Long-term heavy drinking will cause abnormal proliferation of the esophageal mucosa, thereby inducing cancer. In addition, alcohol metabolites such as acetaldehyde also have certain carcinogenicity. According to the latest 2022 edition of the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents": "Calculated by alcohol volume, if adults drink alcohol, the maximum amount of alcohol consumed per day is recommended not to exceed 15g, and any form of alcohol is not good for human health." Therefore, it is recommended that everyone drink as little as possible, and do not drink if they can.