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  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    What are the early signs of oesophageal cancer?

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    Cancer Oesophageal Cancer
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    Thanks

    Dr Salena Ward

    Bariatric (Obesity) Surgeon, General Surgeon, Upper GI Surgeon (Abdominal)

    I am a specialist Upper Gastrointestinal (gut) Surgeon, who performs surgery for weight loss, tumours of stomach and oesophagus, reflux, hiatus hernia and gallstones. I … View Profile

    To answer this question it depends what is meant by ‘early’.

    If ‘early’ means the first or initial symptoms, then I can tell you the most common initial symptom of oesophageal cancer is difficulty swallowing; feeling like food is getting stuck behind the breast bone (sternum), but anywhere from the back of the mouth to the upper abdomen / lower part of sternum.  Usually this type of difficulty swallowing is noticed over a period of weeks to months, and occurs intiailly when eating fresh bread, pastries or chunks of meat but then progressed to other foods and even later to liquids.  At the later stage you would start losing weight.

    If ‘early’ means oesophageal cancer in an early curable stage, then the answer is that oesophageal cancer is usually asymptomatic (without symptoms) when the cancer is smaller and not spread anywhere.  For the cancer to cause the oesophagus to narrow and then cause symptoms of difficulty swallowing, it already has to grow into the wall and partly around the wall of the oesophagus and unfortunately often at this stage it has already spread to other parts of the body.

    That's why if anyone gets a new difficulty swallowing then it should be assessed quickly and possibly an upper gut endoscopy (camera) should be performed to look into it and make sure there is no oesophageal cancer as the cause.  Also if anyone has a risk factor for oesophageal cancer, such as many many years of untreated acid reflux, then this should also get assessed and treated and also may need an endoscopy.  Please speak to your GP quickly if you have any ‘early’ symptoms or risk factors for oesophagea cancer.

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