Esophagus cancer used to be uniformly fatal, but newer treatments offer more hope of survival and comfort than ever before. The esophagus, like all body tissues, is made up of individual cells. Normally, cells within the forming esophagus divide and grow very rapidly in the womb, in early childhood, and through puberty. In adulthood, new cells are only formed to replace those which have died from injury, old age or disease. These genes are made up of DNA, and if it becomes damaged, the cell may start dividing out of control.
Esophagus cancer starts in a single cell which has become abnormal.
This cells produces millions, and eventually billions, of copies of itself. These clones fail to function as normal esophagus tissue, but instead divert resources from healthy cells to fuel their own growth. Unfortunately, a quickly growing tumor within the esophagus is most likely to be cancerous. There were 12,500 new cases of esophagus cancer and 11,000 deaths attribute- bale to the disease in 1996. The overall number of cases each year is steadily increasing .