Can Esophageal Cancer Be Caused By Acid Reflux?

Introduction

Heartburn or acid reflux is a burning sensation that is felt within the throat or chest region once the intake of certain foods. It happens when stomach acid flows back up into the food pipe. Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is diagnosed when acid reflux occurs more than twice a week.

Whereas several of us should have felt heartburn once in our lifespan, too several occurrences like this might be a good indication of musculature cancer.

How an acid burn is related to esophagus?

The esophagus is the tube that carries food from the throat to the abdomen. Within the case of acid reflux, the acid from the abdomen jumps to the esophagus resulting in a condition called Barrett’s esophagus.

This is often a condition that replaces the tissue present within the esophagus with the same kind of tissue found within the lining of the intestine. This being said, Barrett’s esophagus doesn’t essentially lead to esophageal cancer.

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What are the symptoms of esophageal cancer?

Difficulty swallowing is a key symptom of esophageal cancer. This condition is known as dysphasia. As the tumor grows larger, it becomes harder to swallow food.

Esophageal pain is additionally a standard symptom according to by several patients. Loss in craving and an unexplained weight loss are a number of the other symptoms of this kind of cancer.

Though esophageal cancer doesn't show any visible signs within the early stage, a number of the key indicators are the chronic couch, upset stomach, and gruffness of voice.

What are the risk factors of esophageal cancer?

Some of the key risk factors for this kind of cancer are as follows: - Men tend to run a higher risk of obtaining cancer than women.
- Esophageal cancer is typically detected in folks higher than the age of fifty-five or additional
- Chronic tobacco users have higher probabilities of obtaining esophageal cancer
- Consumption of alcohol will increase the danger of esophageal cancer
- Obesity will increase the danger of acid flux thereby resulting in esophageal cancer
- Radiation treatment within the abdomen or chest area may additionally cause esophageal cancer

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How an esophageal cancer is detected & treated?

Primarily there are three ways by which this cancer is detected.

The primary step for a medical specialist to find this cancer is to perform an endoscopy. If this fails, doctors typically try a barium swallow on suspected patients and take an x-ray to grasp the esophagus lining. If all this fails, doctors think about a CT scan to find this cancer.
For the treatment:

If a patient is lucky and therefore cancer gets detected during a very early stage, the tumor along with the infected cell are often surgically removed.

With the exception of surgery, other alternatives are radiation and chemotherapy. a combination of radiation and therapy or surgery followed by radiation can also be recommended by the doctor. The treatment set up depends on the stage of detection.