Treatment of mid- to late-stage esophageal cancer

Esophageal cancer, like other cancers, is clinically divided into early, middle and late stages. When cancer reaches the middle and late stages, the condition is usually quite serious. Therefore, esophageal cancer should be discovered and treated early. However, since it is not easy to be discovered in the early stages, many patients are already in the middle and late stages when they are discovered. So, can esophageal cancer in the middle and late stages be cured?

Can esophageal cancer be cured in the middle and late stages? There is no definite answer to this question. It mainly depends on the patient's physical condition and whether the treatment method is reasonable. Early esophageal cancer may have no symptoms or only mild symptoms, such as choking when swallowing food. These symptoms include pain behind the sternum, esophageal pain when swallowing, burning sensation, and tingling sensation.

Although the best treatment period for esophageal cancer is in the early stage, many patients are not diagnosed until the middle or late stage. The surgical treatment of middle or late stage esophageal cancer is not very effective. Most cases have already metastasized and spread. Even surgical treatment is only palliative local resection, and the 5-year survival rate is less than 30%. So, can middle stage esophageal cancer be cured? Esophageal cancer develops quickly, and the transition time between middle stage esophageal cancer and late stage esophageal cancer is very fast. If a good and appropriate treatment is not taken, middle stage esophageal cancer will also turn into late stage esophageal cancer.

How to treat esophageal cancer in the middle and late stages?

Radiotherapy and chemotherapy combined with tumor biological therapy is the main treatment for mid-stage esophageal cancer. It can be applied to the treatment of esophageal cancer at different pathological stages and can achieve good treatment results. Even for patients with advanced esophageal cancer who are more difficult to treat, radiotherapy and chemotherapy combined with tumor biological therapy can be directly used for comprehensive treatment to relieve the patient's pain and enable the patient to achieve long-term survival with the tumor.

In late-stage patients, cancer cells have spread and metastasized significantly, and they are no longer suitable for surgical treatment. In terms of data, the 5-year survival rate of advanced esophageal cancer treated with comprehensive Western medicine is about 15%, but this data is meaningless when applied to a specific person because there are great differences between people. Reasonable treatment methods can effectively control the progression of the patient's disease and prolong life, but if the treatment method is not suitable for the patient's condition, or the toxic side effects are too large, it will cause the patient's life to be shortened due to excessive treatment. Therefore, the treatment of advanced esophageal cancer is first selected for non-toxic and side-effect therapy, which is suitable for the treatment of advanced patients. Because it pays more attention to improving the quality of life of patients, alleviating various symptoms and prolonging life, it is increasingly respected.

Although it is indeed difficult to treat esophageal cancer when it develops to the middle and late stages, if it can be treated in time and the right treatment method is chosen, it is also of great significance to prolong the patient's survival. When esophageal cancer reaches the late stage, more attention should be paid to relevant care!