EC with no symptoms?

cadharose
cadharose Member Posts: 52
in Esophageal Cancer #1

Hello everyone. I was posting a couple of years ago on the head and neck board when I had HPV-related SCC tonsillar cancer. Two years now and no sign of recurrence.

However, I was recently hospitalized with recurrent pneumonia and a lung abscess. On CT scan they found a bronchoesophageal fistula. I was informed that this is worrisome and needs to be checked out for possible malignancy so I am going to see the GI specialist tomorrow.

The thing that puzzles me is that I have absolutely no symptoms of EC. No dysphagia, no chest pain, no weight loss. Nor any of the other symptoms that can occur with it (and I have researched them all). And apart from the pneumonia that recurs, I feel 100% well. They keep putting me on antibiotics for the pneumonia and that makes me all better until the antibiotic course ends. When I had the cancer 2 years ago I started feeling poorly months before the tumor appeared and I was diagnosed. I had a paraneoplastic syndrome that occurred a couple months before the diagnosis. I was miserable. And antibiotics at that time did no good. But nothing like that this time. I feel fine.

So if I have a tumor that is advanced or large enough to cause a BE fistula, that would probably be at least a stage III EC, according to what I have read. But also according to what I have read, people with stage III EC usually have symptoms, such as dysphagia, pain, etc.

So I am wondering is it possible to have esophageal cancer that is this advanced and no symptoms? Where the presenting picture is only the presence of the fistula and the pneumonia that results from the fistula. Would that not be an unusual presentation of EC?

Another thing is that I have a long history of taking NSAIDs on a daily or near-daily basis along with potassium chloride pills my doctor prescribes. I have read that those can cause esophageal injury. So I am hopeful something like that might be the culprit and not cancer.

 

Comments

  • slpmom
    slpmom Member Posts: 34
    #2
    I know nothing about fistulas

    I know nothing about fistulas but i can tell you that my husband had a 6cm tumor in his esophagus and food was getting very stuck (to the point of it feeling like it was going to come back up). And he was stage 2. He never had heart burn though which they say is the precursor. I find it hard to imagine someone with a stage 2 or later and not feeling the symptoms. I hope that encourages you somewhat although I know its hard not to worry!

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