Asante esophageal cancer awareness

Esophageal cancer is aggressive, and often already late stage when diagnosed. However, if it is found early, the chance for a cure goes up dramatically. Even better, if precancerous changes are identified and treated, the cancer can be prevented completely!

To better serve our community, Asante studied our esophageal cancer patients in 2024. We found that:

• Half are already advanced when diagnosed.
• Patients waited 3 months before telling their doctors about symptoms.
• Many said they didn’t know about esophageal cancer.

Symptoms

In our patients, esophageal cancer presented with these four symptoms:

1. Difficulty swallowing.
   78% of our patients noticed food catch in their chest when swallowing.
2. Pain when eating.
   Specifically, pain in the lower chest or upper abdomen when you eat.
3. Unintended weight loss.
   Patients with advanced disease were more likely to have unexplained weight loss.
4. Frequent heartburn. 
   This causes chronic inflammation in the esophagus.

Risk Factors

Things that can increase your risk for developing esophageal cancer include:

1. Family history of stomach or esophageal cancer.
2. Chronic Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
3. Regular tobacco use.
4. Alcohol consumption.
5. Being male. 80% of our esophageal cancer patients were male.
6. Being obese.

If you have these risk factors or symptoms, reach out!

You might benefit from screening. The screening procedure for esophageal cancer is called upper endoscopy, where we can look at the inner lining of your esophagus with a camera and check for cancer or precancerous changes.

For more information about esophageal cancer and screening, please call (541) 507-2211 or submit the form below and our team at Asante will call you.