Esophageal Cancer Topic Guide

Cancer is a common and deadly disease, and it's surrounded by myths. There are certain basics a patient needs to know when they're confronted with a cancer diagnosis; everything from clinical facts and practices to learning how to navigate the health insurance bureaucracy.

Most symptoms and signs of cancer may also be explained by harmless conditions, so it's important to limit one's risk factors and undergo appropriate cancer screening. Common cancer symptoms and signs are a change in bowel habits or urination, persistent cough, blood in the stool, urine, or saliva, lump in the breast or testicle, hoarseness, swollen glands, a change in a wart or mole, unusual vaginal bleeding or discharge, difficulty swallowing, unexplained weight loss, and headaches.

With the procedure known as gastrointestinal endoscopy, a doctor is able to see the inside lining of your digestive tract. This examination is performed using an endoscope -- a flexible fiberoptic tube, usually with the patient under sedation.

Esophageal tumors may be benign or malignant. Esophageal cancer is a disease in which malignant cells form in the tissues of the esophagus, the muscular tube that moves food and liquid from the throat to the stomach. Most esophageal tumors in children begin in the thin, flat cells that line the esophagus.

Squamous cell carcinoma is a type of cancer that usually grows slowly. It rarely metastasizes (spreads), and most cases of squamous cell carcinoma are diagnosed before the cancer has progressed beyond the upper layer of skin.

Tumor suppressor genes encode proteins to modulate the process of cell growth and replication. Mutations which inactivate the tumor suppressor genes enable cancer cells to grow, unrestrained. Some targeted therapies aim to reactivate these genes, thus suppressing the tumor.