What are the early diagnosis methods for esophageal cancer

Esophageal cancer refers to a malignant lesion formed by abnormal proliferation of esophageal squamous epithelium or glandular epithelium. Its development generally goes through stages such as epithelial atypical hyperplasia, carcinoma in situ, and invasive cancer. Some esophageal cancers can be completely cured if they are discovered early. Therefore, early diagnosis of esophageal cancer is important.

1. Gastroscopy. People over 50 years old who experience stagnation or difficulty swallowing after eating should undergo a gastroscopy in a timely manner. Gastroscopy is highly accurate in esophageal cancer examinations, and can directly observe tiny lesions and conveniently clamp the lesion tissue for pathological examination.

2. Pathological examination. The discovery of esophageal masses or ulcers after gastroscopy does not mean that it is a malignant tumor, because some benign lesions, such as esophageal tuberculosis and Crohn's disease, can also cause similar symptoms. Therefore, it is necessary to clamp tissue for pathological examination after esophageal lesions are found by gastroscopy.

3. Positron emission tomography, or PET-CT. This method is relatively simple and convenient to detect whether esophageal cancer has metastasized. The principle is to use the characteristics of tumor cells as highly metabolic cells, which eat more than normal cells and are never full. During the examination, a specially labeled sugar is injected into the patient. When the CT scan is performed, if a large amount of labeled sugar accumulates somewhere in the body, it may be a tumor. After the tumor is found, the metastasis of the tumor will also be very clear.