What are the risks of esophageal cancer surgery?

My father is 53 years old and has always been in good health. But a few days ago, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. The doctor recommended surgery. So I want to know how big the risk of surgery is and what are the disadvantages of surgery?

Almost every family of a cancer patient will face the above questions. When the doctor strongly recommends that the patient undergo surgery and asks the family to sign the operation form, the patient's family will be at a loss, not knowing whether the surgery is necessary, what the effect of the surgery will be, and how great the risks of the surgery will be.

In fact, doctors will not really tell the truth to patients and their families, because doctors prefer patients to undergo surgery. The most common harm caused by surgery is "complications" or "sequelae". The former refers to symptoms caused by surgery, such as reflux esophagitis, anastomotic fistula, etc.; sequelae refer to symptoms that still exist after a long period of recovery, such as pain, muteness, etc.

Of course, in addition to postoperative complications or sequelae, the worst case scenario is "death". For esophageal cancer patients, surgery has a great risk of leading to death. Data show that in esophageal cancer surgeries across Japan, the postoperative mortality rate of patients can reach 2.2%, while in the United States it can reach 3.4%. There is currently no data on the mortality rate of esophageal cancer surgery in my country.

However, the surgical mortality rate of esophageal cancer is related to the patient's age, physical strength and the scope of surgical resection. Therefore, patients and their families should carefully consider whether to undergo surgery, but they should not blindly fear the risks of surgery and delay treatment.