now the first thing i did was go to you
know google i think it's a lot of people
would and um and do some research on it
and um you know i was concerned because
what i found is that usually when they
find it you know sometimes it's just too
late
that was a survivor of a rare disease
called esophageal cancer it affects the
lining of your esophagus and is often
times deadly the good news is if caught
early chances of survival are high abc
action news indepth reporter anthony
hill is speaking with doctors about how
to decrease your chances of getting this
form of cancer
esophageal cancer is a rare and deadly
form of cancer that attacks the lining
of the esophagus also known as the food
pipe the food pipe connects the mouth to
the stomach and the best way to increase
your chances of surviving is through
early detection we may be able to treat
it endoscopically through the mouth
but in later stages
you will need to have surgery to remove
part of the esophagus conversely if you
wait too long the cancer can get far
enough to where surgery is no longer an
option it can be very difficult to know
for sure if you have esophageal cancer
but doctors say chronic acid reflux can
be a symptom in the early stages like
like we said there's not many uh
symptoms in the later stages typically
it's difficulty swallowing so when
you're trying to swallow food
all of a sudden it feels like it's not
going down as easily as it used to and
so with time we've gotten more and more
capabilities for detecting the spread
years and years ago we didn't have some
of these capabilities nowadays they have
pet scans cat scans and ultrasound
devices that better allow them to
examine the esophagus which is key to
catching this disease early doctors say
the best way to decrease your chances of
getting esophageal cancer is by not
smoking tobacco drinking alcohol in
moderation and maintaining a healthy
weight
in tampa i'm in-depth reporter anthony
hill abc action news