Esophageal cancer

Esophageal cancer happens when malignant cells, meaning cancer cells, form in the esophagus. The esophagus is the muscular tube that food travels down to reach your stomach. Picture a garden hose: this cancer starts on the inside surface, called the inner lining, and from there it grows outward, working its way into the thickness of the wall.

Before that, there can be an in-between stage. When the lining is damaged chronically, meaning over and over for a long time, dysplasia can develop: the cells take on abnormal shapes and stop lining up in an orderly way. Think of a tiled floor where some tiles come out crooked or the wrong size, and the pattern starts to fall apart. If that disorder is high-grade, meaning severe, it can turn into cancer that invades, pushing its way into the wall of the esophagus.

The two most common forms are told apart by the kind of cell they start in. Squamous cell carcinoma starts in flat cells shaped a bit like tiny scales, and it's linked to smoking and alcohol. Adenocarcinoma starts in glandular cells, the cells that make fluids such as mucus, and it's linked to chronic acid reflux: stomach acid that backs up into the esophagus again and again.