Author: Jiang Xiaomeng (Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University)
Esophageal cancer patients may experience discomfort, burning or pain behind the sternum in the early stage, a foreign body or friction in the chest area when swallowing food, and sometimes obvious difficulty in swallowing.
Some patients may have subxiphoid or epigastric discomfort, hiccups, and belching.
Image source: Zhanku Hailuo
Under normal circumstances, the symptoms of early esophageal cancer are relatively mild and short-lived, sometimes light and sometimes severe, sometimes absent, and the intermittent time varies. Some patients are asymptomatic in the early stage.
Esophageal cancer patients will have obvious problems such as dysphagia, food regurgitation, and pain after swallowing in the middle and late stages. Dysphagia is a typical symptom of esophageal cancer. It is mild and intermittent. As the disease progresses, the patient’s difficulty in swallowing will continue and progressively worsen, and some patients cannot even swallow liquid food such as rice porridge normally.
Image source: Zhanku Hailuo
Some patients also experience hematemesis and blood in the stool, and others experience hoarseness, mediastinitis, mediastinal abscess, pneumonia, lung abscess, tracheoesophageal fistula, pericarditis, and more.
Severe esophageal cancer patients or patients with metastases may also experience symptoms such as jaundice, ascites, and coma. When you find yourself with these problems, you should go to the hospital for a medical examination as soon as possible.
Image source: Zhanku Hailuo
*The content of this article is for the popularization of health knowledge and cannot be used as a specific diagnosis and treatment suggestion, nor can it replace the face-to-face consultation of a licensed physician, and is for reference only.
*The copyright of this article belongs to Tencent Medical Dictionary. Unauthorized reprinting by media is prohibited. Illegal reprinting will be investigated for legal responsibility according to law. Individuals are welcome to forward to the circle of friends.
*Welcome to search on WeChat and pay attention to the public account “Tencent Medical Code” to get more knowledge about health science.