Is esophageal cancer contagious?

Esophageal cancer is a malignant tumor that occurs in the esophageal epithelial tissue, accounting for 2% of all malignant tumors. About 200,000 people die of esophageal cancer every year in the world. my country is a high-incidence area for esophageal cancer, and the number of deaths from esophageal cancer ranks second only to gastric cancer. Most people are over 40 years old, and there are more men than women. However, in recent years, there has been an increasing trend in the number of people under 40 years old. The occurrence of esophageal cancer is related to chronic stimulation by nitrosamines, inflammation and trauma, genetic factors, and the content of trace elements in drinking water, food and vegetables.

When some people have someone around them who has esophageal cancer, they are reluctant to contact them because they always believe that esophageal cancer is contagious.

Therefore, many patients' families have asked doctors such questions: Is esophageal cancer contagious? In fact, the contagion we are talking about is usually the transmission of a disease from one person to another through some means. Contagion must have three conditions: the source of infection, the route of transmission and the susceptible population, and none of them can be missing.

Clinical data proves that cancer patients themselves are not the source of infection. Experts have conducted experiments in which cancerous tissue removed from a cancer patient and directly implanted in another person failed to survive and grow.

Although it is currently believed that the occurrence of certain cancers is related to certain viruses, such as cervical cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer, and leukemia, it has not yet been confirmed that infection with certain viruses will lead to certain cancers.

Moreover, cancer is not currently classified as an infectious disease in the world, and patients are not isolated as they would be for infectious diseases. The incidence of cancer among medical staff in cancer hospitals is not higher than that of the general population. Animal experiments have also proven that when cancer-stricken animals and healthy animals are kept together for a long time, no infection is found after repeated observation and examination.

So if your family or friends have esophageal cancer, please do not worry about infection. Because esophageal cancer is not contagious like other diseases. So when someone around you or a relative has esophageal cancer, please do not reject them, but spend more time with them, let them feel warmth and love, so as to build confidence in defeating cancer, which is beneficial to the patient's early recovery.