Oesophageal cancer – the incidence of malignant tumours of the oesophagus is 2.5-5 cases per 100,000 people.
The oesophagus-cancer can be squamous cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma, depending on its histological type. The number of squamous cell carcinomas has been declining in recent years.
Its risk factors are smoking, alcohol consumption, consuming substances that irritate the lining (e.g. hot food, strongly acidic substances), consuming carcinogens (e.g. smoked food), and vitamin and trace element deficiencies.
These changes mainly affect the oesophagus– mostly its upper third, less often its middle third.
The number of adenocarcinomas has been increasing in recent years. This disease mainly affects the lower third, and less often the middle third.
Predisposing factors include obesity, eating fatty foods, a low-fibre diet, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, and the change in the epithelium that develops on the basis of the latter, known as Barrett's metaplasia.
The oesophagus-cancer symptoms (so-called alarm or warning symptoms) may include: difficulty swallowing, painful swallowing, weight loss, vomiting blood, coughing up blood, black (tarry) stools, difficulty breathing and hoarseness.
Less common, so-called paraneoplastic symptoms may include narrowing of the eyelid opening, sinking of the eyeball on the same side, bone and joint pain, multiple areas of hardened skin, symptoms associated with non-specific hormone overproduction, inflammation of the blood vessels, and symptoms associated with high serum calcium levels.
