Cancer that develops in esophagus is known as esophageal cancer. It also spreads to other parts of your body in the advanced stages. Esophagus is 25 cm long strong tube that connects your mouth to the stomach. Wall of esophagus consists of many muscles. Most of the esophageal cancers develop in two layers of tissue i.e. mucosa and submucosa. Esophageal cancer mostly develops in the forms of malignant and benign tumor. In benign tumor, uncontrolled growth of the cell is observed without any spread, whereas in malignant tumor, cells increase the vulnerability to attack tissues and even spread to the distant parts of your body. There are two types of esophageal cancer such as adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinomas.

Causes of Esophageal Cancer

There are a few causes of esophageal cancer that are mentioned below.

• Smoking: It is the cause of esophageal cancer. People who smoke can suffer from esophageal cancer.
• Heavy Drinking: People who are addicted to alcoholic drinks can get esophageal cancer. Heavy  alcohol drinkers  are at higher danger to develop esophageal cancer.
• Age:  As you get older, your chances of getting this cancer increase.
• Obesity: It is another cause of esophageal cancer that also increases the danger of adenocarcinoma of esophagus.

Signs of Esophageal Cancer

Signs of esophageal cancer are heartburn, weight loss, chest pain, regurgitation of undigested food, vomiting blood and inability to ingest solid foods.

Treatment for esophageal cancer

There are a number of treatment options available for the treatment of esophageal cancer. These options of treatment for cancer are given below.

• Surgery: There are two kinds of surgery available for the treatment of esophageal cancer. In one kind, cancerous parts of esophageal and close by lymph nodes are completely removed and the residual portion is reconnected to your stomach. In other kind of surgery, close by lymph nodes, a part of the esophagus as well as the top of the stomach is totally removed. The leftover portion of esophagus is afterwards reconnected to your stomach. During the surgery, the surgeon places a feeding tube into the patient’s intestine. This feeding tube helps the patient in getting sufficient nutrition. After surgery, you might suffer from pain for a few days. But, there are a few medicines that help you in controlling the pain. The time it takes for curing after surgery is different for everybody and relies on the surgery type too. You need to stay in the hospital for a few days after the surgery.
• Laser Treatment: If the esophageal cancer is blocking esophagus and creating many problems in swallowing then laser treatment is used for clearing these blockages. A stent or a tube is put inside the patient’s body so that the patient can drink and eat. Laser treatment completely eradicates cancer tumors. It even helps you in eradicating the side effects of esophageal cancer like difficulty swallowing. Sometimes, laser-induced interstitial thermotherapy, which makes use of optical fibers to direct laser in your body is used as an option of treatment for esophageal cancer. Side effects of laser treatment are bleeding, swelling, pain in esophagus and scarring.
• Photodynamic Therapy: This is a newly introduced esophageal cancer treatment. This kind of treatment makes use of low powered laser to treat esophageal cancer. This treatment is combined with a drug for removing cancer cells in your body. The doctor suggests you this therapy to destroy a complete part of the tumor and improve swallowing.
• Radiotherapy: Radiation therapy is generally given when the esophageal cancer in its early stages. Use of external radiations, through a machine that emits this beam of radiation, is done to kill or shrink the cancerous cells present in the esophagus. Sometimes, radioisotopes in the form of needles or wires are also used to shrink these cancerous cells. Such a method is called as internal radiation therapy.
• Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy treatment is mostly given in combination with radiation therapy to kill the cancerous cells that are in the early stages, however cannot be killed completely through surgery or using only radiation therapy. This method makes use of different drugs to kill these cells. These  chemotherapy drugs are given in the form of intravenous injections or pills.Chemotherapy treatment given along with radiation therapy is also referred to chemotherapy radiation therapy.

We have mentioned the list of the treatments above for the treatment of esophageal cancer. Mostly therapies are used to treat esophageal cancer.