There are no typical symptoms in the early stage of esophageal cancer, and the "smoking, drinking and eating while hot" population is screened once every two years for endoscopic screening

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The well-known actor Tu Men died of esophageal cancer a few days ago, only 1 month from diagnosis to death. Esophageal cancer is known as a "tumor with Chinese characteristics", and about half of the world's patients are in China. In 2020, there were about 320,000 new cases of esophageal cancer in China and 300,000 deaths, accounting for the fifth and fourth places of all malignant tumors, respectively.

Esophageal cancer is the result of a combination of factors, including diet and lifestyle, genetic factors, infectious factors, etc. Ding Shigang, chief physician of the Department of Gastroenterology of peking University Third Hospital, said that epidemiological investigations have shown that eating hot food often will increase the incidence of esophageal cancer, "this is because high temperature food will cause damage to the esophageal mucosa, and the esophageal mucosa may become cancerous in the process of long-term damage and repair." ”

"Deficiencies of vitamins A, E, C and other substances can strengthen the carcinogenic effect of nitrites, and smoking, alcohol consumption, poor oral hygiene, and family history of esophageal cancer are also risk factors for esophageal cancer." Ding Shigang stressed that human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is an important causative factor in some areas with high incidence of esophageal cancer, and the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in HPV infected people is about 3 times that of normal people.

"There are no typical symptoms in the early stages of esophageal cancer, some patients have no symptoms, and some patients will have atypical symptoms such as retrosternal discomfort, retrosternal burning sensation or minor needle-like pain." Ding Shigang introduced that the typical symptoms of the middle and advanced stages of esophageal cancer are progressive dysphagia, specifically, there is difficulty swallowing when eating solid food at the beginning, and with the progress of time, eating semi-liquid food and even liquid food will have difficulty swallowing.

The prognosis of patients with early esophageal cancer is relatively good, and endoscopy is an important means of early screening for esophageal cancer. Ding Shigang suggested that people over the age of 40, who have smoking and drinking habits, and who like to eat hot and happy, should be examined every 2 years, and the frequency of examinations in high-incidence areas and high-risk groups should be more frequent.

Beijing News reporter Liu Xu