Symptoms of esophageal cancer

Esophagus cancer is a cancerous disease that develops from the epithelium of the esophageal mucosa. Among cancers, the cancer of the esophagus steadily ranks 9-10th. In Russia, the incidence of esophageal cancer has declined significantly over the past few years. If you take into account 10 years, it decreased by 18%.Esophageal cancer, as it turned out in most cases, occurs in men, in a fine half of the population, esophageal cancer is less common. Elderly people are also susceptible to this disease. According to statistics, about 80% of cases of this disease occur in people who are over 60 years old. In people less than thirty years old, esophageal cancer occurs in isolated cases.

Symptoms of esophageal cancer

Early symptoms of this type of cancer - decreased appetite, resulting in weight loss;Deterioration of the general condition of the patient, which is rapidly progressing, increasing weakness, reduced efficiency. If the symptoms increase gradually, the patient for a long time may not notice such a change.

Among the first symptoms of this disease is dysphagia, but, unfortunately, this symptom is not early. With dysphagia, a malfunction occurs during the swallowing of the food mass. This symptom is noted in 75% of cases. It is better to swallow the food masses of patients is possible with abundant salivation, which is observed when eating sausages, herring, roasted meat. With the use of cooked meat, black bread, boiled potatoes, saliva stands out worse. Initially, it is possible to get rid of severe manifestations of this symptom by thoroughly chewing food, which is washed down with water. Thanks to this approach, the patient can take any food without restriction. In such cases, dysphagia manifests itself periodically. Dysphagia also manifests itself when ingested by not thoroughly chewed pieces of food, with a hasty intake of food. This symptom becomes permanent as the disease progresses.

The first symptom in some patients that occurs with esophageal cancer is salivary salivation. This symptom, as a rule, is observed with a sharp narrowing of the esophagus.

Another symptom of this disease in 17-20% of cases is pain that occurs behind the sternum, in the back or in the epigastrium. Patients experience dull, pulling pain in the sternum. Sometimes patients complain of a feeling of contraction of the heart, which is given to the neck. Such pain usually occurs at the time of swallowing, after a time, after the esophagus has rid of food, disappears. Less painful feelings are of a persistent nature, and during the passage of food through the esophagus intensify. Food masses passing through the esophagus irritate the nerve endings of the tumor, which causes painful sensations. In such cases, the patient usually feels how food moves through certain areas of the esophagus, "burning" and "scratching" it.

Another sign of esophageal cancer is weight loss. The loss of body weight, first of all, is due to the fact that food enters the body of the patient in limited quantities. In this case, the toxic effect of the widespread tumor process is irrelevant. Significant weight loss is most often observed with an extreme degree of dysphagia, this is when the patient can not take even a liquid, as a result of dehydration the general condition of the patient sharply worsens.

Regurgitation, nausea, from the mouth comes an unpleasant smell, an unpleasant taste that is felt in the mouth, a lined tongue - this clinical picture is characteristic for the early stage of esophageal cancer. Similar symptoms can be noted both because of the narrowing of the esophagus, and because of a metabolic malfunction.

In esophagus cancer, there are other symptoms, such as coughing and choking, that occur during the swallowing of liquid food, as a result of the formation of a fistula( esophageal tracheal and / or esophageal-bronchial) or laryngeal function disruption;Hoarseness of the voice due to compression by metastases.