What are the symptoms of early esophageal cancer?

     The food passes slowly and there is a feeling of staying, the pain under the xiphoid process often causes the esophageal mouth to become smaller, and the food is difficult to swallow and there is a feeling of self-stay. These early symptoms of esophageal cancer only appear when swallowing food, and disappear after eating, and have nothing to do with the nature of the food. 

    Even when drinking water, they have the same sensation. Pain under the xiphoid process (heart mouth): I feel burning under the xiphoid process. This kind of tingling pain, varying in severity, mostly occurs when swallowing food, and lessens or disappears after eating, and some are persistent dull pain, which has little to do with eating.

    The symptoms of early esophageal cancer are indeed not obvious. The cancer tissue is only limited to the mucosal layer of the esophagus, and its range is generally less than 2cm, but it is not without symptoms. 

    Such as foreign body sensation in the esophagus, burning sensation, sometimes retention sensation when eating or tingling behind the breastbone, etc. These symptoms are mostly ignored by patients and are thought to be caused by careless eating or pharyngitis. 

    With the gradual aggravation of the disease, patients may experience choking while eating, difficulty in eating and drinking, etc.

The landmark event of cancer: escape the fate of cell death

    In normal tissues, the new generation of cells maintain a balance through cell division and cell death. Older cells gradually deteriorate over time and enter a process called apoptosis. Apoptosis is a very orderly process. 

    In this process, the cell's genome and all its genetic information will be damaged. Cells become fragmented, and these fragments can be digested and removed by neighboring cells (called phagocytes). This is a normal and necessary process for us to use brand new and healthy cells for some renewal of the body.

     There are checkpoints in the cell cycle that are used to identify and eliminate abnormally dividing cells. These checkpoints are responsible for preventing the development of cancer cells, because cancer cells can grow and divide in a different way than normal cells. Those cancer cells that can pass these tests can escape the cell death signals triggered by their abnormal behavior.

    The escape of cell death is accompanied by the formation of tumors caused by continued cell division. Many of the chemotherapeutics discussed in the cancer treatment section work by forcing cancer cells to undergo a process of apoptosis.

    The process of apoptosis includes nuclear fragmentation and the formation of cell debris, which are shown in the animation below.