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Oesophageal Cancer Treatment

The esophagus is a tube in the throat that carries swallowed food to the stomach for digestion. Esophageal cancer starts in cells along the interior of the esophagus. There are several options available to treat the cancer. The stage of the cancer is the main factor in selecting a treatment for esophageal cancer.

  1. Surgery

    • Surgery is the treatment of choice in the early stages of esophageal cancer when the tumor or tumors are very small or when they are on the outer layers of the esophagus and have not yet spread to other areas. This involves passing an endoscope down the throat and into the esophagus. Sometimes in the mid stages of esophageal cancer, the surgeon will remove the portion of the esophagus and surrounding lymph nodes where the tumor is located and reconnect the esophagus to the stomach. In other cases, a section of the colon will be taken to replace the removed portion of the esophagus. The surgeon may also need to remove part of the stomach during the surgery, which he will pull up and then reattach to the esophagus. Part of the colon is often used to help join the stomach to the esophagus. The risk of infection is present in all of the surgeries, and there is also the possibility of leakage and bleeding in the area where the remainder of the esophagus is reattached.

    Chemotherapy

    • Chemotherapy uses drugs to treat cancer. Esophageal cancer patients can be treated with chemotherapy before surgery or afterward. In the later stages of the disease, when the cancer has spread, chemotherapy treatment can be used to help relieve the symptoms of esophageal cancer. A drawback to chemotherapy is that it causes nausea in many patients and also causes the patients' hair to fall out.

    Radiation

    • Radiation therapy attacks and kills cancer cells through the use of high-powered energy beams. A machine can be used outside the body to aim the beams at the cancer cells, or it can be used inside the body, close to the cancer cells. With cancer of the esophagus, radiation therapy is generally used in conjunction with chemotherapy. Radiation is sometimes used during the advanced stages of esophageal cancer when the tumor may have grown so large it stops food from passing to the stomach. Radiation therapy can cause burning to the skin; can make it difficult for the patient to swallow; and can accidentally damage nearby organs, such as the heart or lungs.

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