Symptoms of Esophageal Cancer
Early stage esophageal cancer often does not cause symptoms.
As the disease progresses, symptoms can include:
- Difficulty swallowing
- Increased difficulty swallowing solid foods
- Epigastric pain (pain in the upper abdomen immediately below the ribs)
- Weight loss
- Blood in the stool or vomiting blood
Diagnosing Esophageal Cancer
Because esophageal cancer doesn’t produce symptoms early, it’s important to recognize risk factors, such as acid reflux and screen people at risk. Doing so has helped our esophageal cancer screening initiatives find more cancers at earlier stages when they are more treatable.
Tests examining the esophagus help diagnose esophageal cancer:
- Esophagoscopy: A special scope is inserted through the mouth or nose and down the throat into the esophagus. Examining the esophagus and stomach is called an upper endoscopy.
- Biopsy: Cells or tissues may be removed so a pathologist can check under a microscope for signs of cancer. The biopsy is usually done during an esophagoscopy.
- Endoscopic Ultrasound: A special scope inserted into the esophagus performs an ultrasound to determine the stage of your cancer. The ultrasound helps measure the depth of a tumor and identifies malignant lymph nodes that require a biopsy.
- Upper GI (gastrointestinal) Series: The patient swallows a barium liquid that flows through the esophagus and into the stomach. X-rays look for abnormal areas.
- Chest CT Scan
- Chest X-Ray
Treating Esophageal Cancer
The Cancer Institute offers the latest treatment options for esophageal cancer, including endoscopic techniques available at only a few centers across the country. These allow a patient to keep their esophagus and have significantly shortened hospital stays with minimal or no pain.
Treatments include:
- Radio Frequency Ablation (RFA): Treating pre-malignant conditions like Barrett’s esophagus with RFA helps prevent them from becoming esophageal cancer. Our team performs the most RFA procedures in Connecticut, and the second-most in New England.
- Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection (ESD): The Cancer Institute is among the few centers in the country offering ESD, an innovative procedure that can cure most cases of early-stage esophageal cancer without removing the esophagus.
- With this technique, our specialists use an endoscope to remove small, relatively superficial esophageal cancer lesions as large as 2.75 inches. This gives patients a cure and improved quality of life.
- The standard of care elsewhere is esophageal removal. Patients often return home the day after their procedure. With small, early cancers, it’s possible to go home the same day.
- Minimally Invasive Esophagectomy: When tumors are too deep for ESD, this technique allows us to remove tumors through several small incisions in the abdomen and chest. The procedure offers a faster recovery and less pain than traditional techniques.