TAMPA, Fla. — For Craig Smith, 2021 is a yr he’ll always remember. What he thought was simply indigestion ended up being an epidemic that claims the lives of most folks who get it.
“It’s more common than people know and oftentimes when people find it, it’s too late,” mentioned Smith.
Smith did what many individuals don’t do and it saved his life. He determined to see a specialist to get right down to the underside of his signs and when he did, he came upon he had esophageal cancer.
This type of cancer assaults the liner of the esophagus, often known as the meals pipe. The meals pipe connects the mouth to the abdomen.
“I needed to find a specialist and I found that with Dr. Erim at Cleveland Clinic,” said Smith.
Dr. Tolga Erim is a gastroenterologist at the Cleveland Clinic and he said if the cancer is caught early, specialists can treat it without a surgical procedure.
“We may be able to treat it endoscopically through the mouth, but in later stages, you would need to have surgery to remove part of the esophagus,” mentioned Dr. Erim.
Conversely, in case you wait too lengthy, the cancer can get far sufficient to the place surgical procedure is not an choice.
It will be very tough to know for certain when you have esophageal cancer, however medical doctors say persistent acid reflux disease generally is a symptom.
“In the early stages, like we said, there’s not many 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,” mentioned Dr. Erim.
“If associated with that (esophageal cancer), you have some decreased weight. That needs to be looked at,” mentioned Dr. Rick Schmidt, a surgeon at Baycare Health in Tampa.
Dr. Schmidt has operated on a number of folks with esophageal cancer.
Fast info on esophageal cancer from the American Cancer Society:
- It’s estimated that about 21,000 adults will likely be diagnosed with esophageal cancer this yr within the United States.
- Men are extra liable to having this cancer. In truth, it is the seventh most widespread reason for cancer deaths for males within the United States.
- It’s estimated that about 16,000 folks will die from this cancer within the United States this yr alone.
“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,” mentioned Dr. Schmidt.
He mentioned these days they’ve pet scans, cat scans and ultrasound units that higher enable them to look at the esophagus which is vital to catching this illness early.
“It’s just people being vigilant about their symptoms. If you’ve noticed a change in your swallowing, and I’m not saying a week’s worth – just kind of watch it for a little while – but if you got ongoing change in your swallowing, that probably needs to be looked at. If you got ongoing heartburn, that needs to be looked at,” mentioned Dr. Schmidt.
Doctors say one of the simplest ways to lower your possibilities of getting esophageal cancer is by not smoking tobacco, ingesting alcohol carefully and sustaining a wholesome weight.
As for Smith, he is simply glad to have a second probability at life with out cancer. He mentioned this expertise has made him extra conscious of his consuming and ingesting habits and the significance of being bodily lively.
“You know, I think once you discover this and you realize that you’ve caught it early, it just makes life all the richer and I’m certainly living life fully and doing everything that I did before and more,” mentioned Smith.