Key Terms That Will Help You
- Esophageal cancer is a difficult diagnosis to receive. You're likely dealing with a lot of questions, uncertainty, and emotions as you consider treatment options.
- In order to better understand this disease, we've put together a list of esophagel-cancer-related terms to help you or a loved one should a diagnosis arise.
Esophageal cancer isn't as common as breast or prostate cancer, but it tends to have a worse prognosis. "Esophageal cancer, we know is a tough one," Dr. Brendon Stiles, a thoracic surgeon at Montefiore Medical Center, told SurvivorNet. "It's one of the cancers with some of the lowest cure rates out there, but like many cancers, if we find it early, we can often treat it effectively."
Read More In here you can find a list of esophagel-cancer-related terms to help you or a loved one should a diagnosis arise.
- Adenocarcinoma: This subtype of esophageal cancer begins in the glandular tissue in the lower part of the esophagus where the esophagus and the stomach come together. Barrett's esophagus with intestinal metaplasia (a complication of gastroesophageal reflux disease), obesity, and smoking are the main risk factors for adenocarcinoma. The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma has increased dramatically in Western countries such that adenocarcinoma now accounts for > 60%of all esophageal cancers in the US.
- Adjuvant therapy: Is when radiation (and along with chemo when possible), is given after surgery to try to kill any cancer cells that may have been left behind but are too small to see.
- Anastomosis: refers to a connection between two tubes or passages that would normally branch away from each other. Anastomosis is when surgeons connect two tube-like structures (esophagus and stomach) inside the body.
- Anastomotic leakage: occurs when a surgical anastomosis fails and contents of a reconnected body channel leak from the surgical connection. It’s one of the most serious complications of esophageal resection surgery.
- Carcinoma in situ: refers to cancer in which abnormal cells have not spread beyond where they first formed. These are cancers are at a very initial stage and are more likely to be cured.
- Chemotherapy: is a medication that travels through the bloodstream and reaches all parts of the body (it's a systemic therapy). In general, they are powerful chemicals that treat cancer by attacking cells during specific parts of the cell replication (cell cycle). Cancer cells go through this process faster than normal cells, so chemotherapy has more of an effect on these fast-growing cells.
- Dysphagia: is the medical term for swallowing difficulties. Some people with dysphagia have problems swallowing certain foods or liquids, while others can't swallow at all, which can lead to issues where people are not getting enough nutrients.
- Endoscopy: The medical name for the procedure is an esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), and it can be used to diagnose conditions of the esophagus (as well as the stomach and small intestine), such as esophageal cancer.
- Endoscopic mucosal resection: is procedure to remove precancerous, early-stage cancer or other abnormal tissues (lesions) from the digestive tract. It's minimally invasive procedure that can sometimes be performed for early staged lesion.
- Enteral feeding: may be needed before or during treatment to prevent further weight loss and improve nutrition. This can make treatment easier to tolerate. The tubes allow liquid food to enter your stomach or intestine through a soft, flexible tube can be inserted through the patients nose, mouth or surgically, creating an opening in the abdominal wall called an ostomy. There are a variety of feeding tubes that may be used to supplement nutrition at different points during the treatment process. These include:
- Orogastric Tube (OGT) Thin soft tube passed through the patient's mouth, through the esophagus and into the stomach.
- Nasogastric Tube (NGT) This tube is also passed through the patient's nose, down the back of the throat, through the esophagus and into the stomach.
- Nasojejunal feeding tube A nasojejunal tube is a thin, soft tube that is put in through the nose, goes through the stomach and ends in the jejunum (a part of the small intestine).
- Gastrostomy tube a feeding tube which is inserted endoscopically or surgically through the abdominal wall and directly into the stomach.
- Jejunostomy tube (or J-tube) a feeding tube which is inserted surgically through the abdominal wall and directly into the small bowel.
- Esophagectomy: It’s a surgical procedure to remove some or all of the swallowing tube between your mouth and stomach (esophagus) and then reconstruct it using part of another organ, usually the stomach.
- Immunotherapy: is the use of medicines that help a person's own immune system find and destroy cancer cells more effectively. It can be used to treat some people with esophagus cancer.
- Laparoscopic surgery: Laparoscopic or "minimally invasive" surgery is a specialized technique for performing surgery. This system allows surgeons to perform the same operations as traditional surgery but with smaller incisions. At the beginning of the procedure, the abdomen is inflated with carbon dioxide gas to provide a working and viewing space for the surgeon. The laparoscope transmits images from the abdominal cavity to high-resolution video monitors in the operating room. Patients often experience less pain, a shorter recovery, and less scarring with laparoscopic surgery.
- Metastasis: The spread of cancer cells from the place where they first formed to another part of the body. The cancer cells can travel through the blood or lymph system, and form a new tumor in other organs or tissues of the body.
- Multimodality treatment: Is a therapy that combines more than one method of treatment. For esophageal cancer it usually consists in using of chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy in combination with surgery.
- Neoadjuvant treatment:. is when chemotherapy and/or radiation is given prior to surgery, in order to try to shrink the cancer and make it easier to remove. A very important study was published on the International Journal of Cancer: it was proved that neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy improved overall survival when compared to all other treatments including surgery alone, neoadjuvant chemotherapy and neoadjuvant radiotherapy.
- Non-Invasive: The tumors can be found in the top layer of cells and are confined to the esophagus, these are cancers are at a very initial stage and are more likely to be cured.
- Radiation therapy or radiotherapy: is one of the most commonly used treatments for cancer. It’s a non-invasive approach to cancer treatment that utilizes high energy x-rays delivered from outside of the body to kill cancer cells and eliminate tumors.
- Risk Factors: in general, are factors that can make you more likely to develop a specific disease. Risk factors for esophageal cancer include smoking, obesity, age (the risk of esophageal cancer increases as you age) and personal history (your risk increases if you or anyone in your family has had colorectal cancer).
- Squamous cell carcinoma: This type of esophageal cancer starts in squamous cells that line the esophagus. It usually develops in the upper and middle part of the esophagus and smoking and alcohol are major risk factors. Worldwide, SCC is the most prevalente esophageal cancer subtype.
- Systemic Therapy: Treatments that affect the whole body. The most common form of systemic therapy is chemotherapy, but targeted therapy and immunotherapy are also options.
- Types of esophageal cancer: There are 2 main types of esophageal cancer and there is little doubt that esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinomas represent two different diseases with distinct characteristics.
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