Cancer of the Esophagus is a tumor that grows in the lining of the esophagus. The Esophagus is the tube connecting the mouth and upper throat to the stomach.
What is going on in the body?
The Esophagus carries swallowed food to the stomach using a coordinated muscular effort. There is a muscular door called a sphincter between the Esophagus and the stomach. esophageal cancer can start anywhere along the lining of the esophagus. It begins in the inside lining. It then grows through the muscular wall of the esophagus. It can spread to other parts of the body through the blood or lymphatic system.
What are the causes and risks of the disease?
There appear to be many causes and risk factors for esophageal cancer. Certain conditions, if present for a long time, increase a person's risk for esophageal cancer. These conditions include:
achalasia, a condition in which the Esophagus muscle cannot relax
Barrett's esophagus, an ulcer in the Esophagus caused by long-term gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD
diverticuli, or pouches in the lining of the esophagus
lye or burn-related damage
tylosis, a genetic skin problem
People who smoke cigarettes, chew tobacco, and drink alcohol are at a higher risk for this cancer. It is also thought that chronic and recurring irritation can increase the risk of esophageal cancer. These irritations include drinking very hot liquids, eating pickled foods, and being exposed to environmental toxins.
esophageal cancer is rarely seen in people younger than 25 years old. The disease is more common in men than in women. It is seen more often in African Americans than in Caucasians. Overall, esophageal cancer is relatively uncommon in the United States. In some parts of Asia it is the second most common cancer, accounting for as much as 50% of all cancer deaths.
Symptoms & Signs
What are the signs and symptoms of the disease?
Someone who has esophageal cancer may have the following symptoms:
difficulty swallowing
heartburn
inability to swallow solid foods and, eventually, liquids
pain with swallowing
weight loss
If the cancer spreads to other body organs, it may cause pain. Since it spreads easily to the liver, the person may develop the following symptoms of liver failure:
abdominal pain
enlarged liver
jaundice, or yellowing of the eyes and skin
Diagnosis & Tests
How is the disease diagnosed?
Diagnosis of esophageal cancer begins with a medical history and physical exam. The healthcare provider may order an endoscopy of the esophagus. If a tumor is seen, a biopsy is done.
If the tumor is found to be cancerous, a sing work-up is done. This includes a physical exam, blood tests, and CAT scans of the chest and abdomen. This will give an indication of the size of the tumor. It will also show any stasis to the chest, lymph nodes, lungs, or liver.
Prevention & Expectations
What can be done to prevent the disease?
The best way to prevent esophageal cancer is to avoid tobacco and alcohol.
People who have Barrett's Esophagus need aggressive treatment of their GERD to prevent esophageal cancer. Treatment for GERD may include the following:
fundoplication, a surgical procedure that strengthens the esophageal sphincter
GI stimulants that empty the stomach faster, such as metoclopramide
H2 blockers, such as cimetidine, ranitidine, and famotidine
proton pump inhibitors, such as omeprazole, lansoprazole, or rabeprazole
People with Barrett's Esophagus may have regular endoscopies, which use a lighted tube to examine the esophagus. Biopsies, which involve removing a small piece of tissue, are sometimes needed. These screenings may detect an esophageal cancer early, when it is most treatable.
What are the long-term effects of the disease?
esophageal cancer is a deadly disease. The 5-year survival rate is poor, even with aggressive treatment. It often recurs, despite surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.
What are the risks to others?
esophageal cancer is not conious. It poses no risk to others.
Treatment & Monitoring
What are the treatments for the disease?
Persons who have stases that cannot be cured with surgery may still benefit from radiation therapy or chemotherapy. Radiation does not help if the cancer has spread to the liver or lungs.
Chemotherapy has short-term benefit for cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. It can be combined with radiation therapy. It involves toxic drugs, and the potential benefit must be balanced with the side effects.
Surgery of the Esophagus can be complicated. It may involve removing the esophagus, stomach, spleen, and lymph nodes inside the chest. Another part of the lower bowel or stomach can be pulled up and attached to the remaining esophagus. This allows the person to continue eating. People need to be in relatively good health to tolerate this surgery.
Whether preoperative chemotherapy and radiation therapy can improve the cure rate with this extensive surgery is controversial and under study.
What are the side effects of the treatments?
Following are some of the side effects of radiation:
burning of the skin
damage to the heart or lungs
irritation of the esophagus
loss of appetite
more difficulty swallowing
nausea
Side effects of chemotherapy include the following:
anemia, or a low red blood cell count
diarrhea
hair loss
increased susceptibility to infection
irritation of the mouth and intestines
nausea and vomiting
Surgery alone is associated with a 5% to 10% mortality rate. Side effects include bleeding, infection, and allergic reaction to anesthesia.
What happens after treatment for the disease?
It may take several months to recover from treatment. The person who may be cured can live a relatively normal lifestyle. He or she may not be able to eat certain foods. He or she also may not be able to absorb iron and vitamins or certain foods. Most people, if they survive, do not have long-term effects from chemotherapy or radiation.
How is the disease monitored?
esophageal cancer is monitored with physical exams, lab tests, endoscopies, chest X-rays, and CAT scans or MRIs. Any new or worsening symptoms should be reported to the healthcare provider.
Attribution
Author:Thomas Fisher, MD
Date Written:
Editor:Ballenberg, Sally, BS
Edit Date:08/31/01
Reviewer:Adam Brochert, MD
Date Reviewed:07/27/01
Simply sit in your easy chair and turn on the ReBuilder for a soothing 30 minute treatment.
What is the ReBuilder?
The ReBuilder is a proven and doctor recommended, electronic pain treatment. The ReBuilder is fully registered with the FDA for the treatment of neuropathic symptoms. It is covered by private insurance companies such as Empire Life, Sun Life, and Desjardins, with more joining the list daily. The ReBuilder is specifically designed for the pain related to Peripheral neuropathy of any etiology, such as diabetic, idiopathic, alcoholic, inherited, and the pain of chemotherapy induced neuropathy. The ReBuilder is designed to be used in the privacy of your own home.
It consists of a small, hand held, battery powered stimulator that sends a comfortable electronic pulse to your feet and legs (or hands and arms) that can restore full nerve function. You can think of it like a heart pacemaker that restores and improves heart function: the ReBuilder restores, stabilizes, and rebuilds the nerves in your hands and feet.
ReBuilder 300 UnitReBuilder 2407 Professional Unit
Before each impulse is sent, the ReBuilder analyzes the waveform of your nerves, determines any abnormalities, creates the unique waveform of the healing signal necessary, administers that signal to both feet simultaneously, and then re-evaluates the result. This process happens 7.83 times every second. Each successive signal is constantly being adjusted to conform to what your nerves need in real time. The ReBuilder is powered by a common 9 volt battery and is microprocessor controlled.
The ReBuilder is not a common TENS device that is designed to temporarily block nerve signals; the ReBuilder is a unique form of TENS and restores (opens) nerve pathways so that your nerves function properly. Relief is usually felt with the very first treatment.
To use it, you simply sit in your easy chair, put on the conductive socks, and turn on the ReBuilder for a soothing 30 minute treatment. Your ReBuilder automatically shuts itself off at the end of the treatment session (just in case you fall asleep).
The ReBuilder works for your feet and legs, hands and arms... it even can be used to relieve pain in your lower back or the numbness associated with the sciatic nerve (sciatica). Sometimes this condition can be referred to as piriformis entrapment syndrome.
Your ReBuilder can also treat the painful symptoms of arthritis, MS, and many other forms of chronic pain, including post-surgical pain. Your ReBuilder can also stop the pain and numbness of sciatica. The sciatic nerve can become pinched within overworked muscles and the ReBuilder can quickly eliminate those symptoms as well.
The ReBuilder is used in Cancer treatment Centers all over the world to eliminate the neuropathy symptoms that develop of the result of chemotherapy. If the ReBuilder can stop and reverse pain from chemo-induced neuropathy, it can surely help you.
"The ReBuilder has helped our patients who have painful side effects from chemotherapy neuropathy so much..." Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
The difference between the ReBuilder and a TENS device
The ReBuilder is not a "common" TENS device. The ReBuilder is specifically designed to treat the painful symptoms of neuropathy and sciatica. Neuropathic and sciatic pain is diffuse, usually affecting the entire lower half of the body, ly the feet and legs. Sometimes Peripheral neuropathy can also affect your hands, and arms. Because of this diffuse, bilateral nature of neuropathy and nerve pain in general, the area to be treated is too large to be treated with a common TENS. In addition, a common TENS, whether it is microcurrent or not, blocks nerve transmissions, while the ReBuilder does the exact opposite...it opens and conditions the nerves and the nerve paths.
It can be very dangerous to use a common TENS device in the way the ReBuilder is used. This is because a common TENS device is designed to be used with the conductive skin electrodes placed close together, normally about 4 to 6 inches apart. If you were to place the pads farther apart, such as one pad on one foot and the other on the other foot like the ReBuilder does, the common TENS will unsafely continue to put out more and more current until it either burns itself out or it burns out your nerves. It can over stimulate your nerves and cause them to go into fibrillation, (like in a heart attack), causing permanent damage.
The ReBuilder has special bio feedback circuits built in that not only isolate the power source from the patient, but can automatically adjust and limit the output power for the patient's safety.
The ReBuilder is different from other common TENS devices in that it analyzes in real time, the waveform that the nerves are responding with, and then creates a specific waveform to gently nudge the dysfunctional nerves back to full function. We have discovered in our research here in our own lab, that nerves communicate with each other like an FM radio. In an FM radio, each station is looking for a specific frequency and waveform as a 'carrier". Then the data sent from the radio station is translated to music or voice. Similarly, your nerves expect to communicate with each other, your brain, and your muscles with specific frequencies and waveforms. The ReBuilder reads all this data from your nerves, determines the various deficiencies, creates a custom output signal, and does it all in real time, and it does this 7.83 times per second to give your nerves a chance to re-polarize and not become overloaded or go into fibrillation.
While most TENS use a simple square wave, and others use a dampened sinosoidal waveform, neither of these outputs speak the special of nerves, therefore they only serve to, in effect, shout to the nerves. The ReBuilder whispers.
The ReBuilder was originally cleared by the FDA in 1987 and has been under going constant improvements ever since then. It was approved for Medicare and Insurance coverage in 2005. One such improvement was the addition of special circuitry to enable the ReBuilder to administer its healing signals via special, silver laced electrically conductive socks and gloves. These gloves are manufactured by us to match the impedance and other electrical parameters of the ReBuilder to provide a safe, effective treatment system for the pain associated with diabetic Peripheral neuropathy, sciatica, Peripheral vascular disease and Peripheral artery disease.
Special safety alert: There is only one ReBuilder, and you should be careful not to accept any substitutes such as a regular TENS or cheap, imported, socks or gloves.
A regular TENS is designed to be used with the electrodes placed about 4 to 6 inches apart. When the electrodes are placed one on each foot or hand, the amount of tissue between the electrodes is about 300 times greater, which means that the electrical resistance is 300 times greater. A regular TENS has to overcome this higher resistance, and can overload itself. Regular TENS do not have circuits to "blow a safety fuse" so they keep right on pumping out more and more current, and this can cause permanent, even fatal damage to your nerves. Regular TENS devices can be very dangerous. Always demand "Brand Specific: ReBuilder Model 300 or Model 2407."
Do not accept any conductive garment that does not have a permanent sewn-in label indicating that it is the authentic ReBuilder Brand Specific Conductive Garment. Cheap imitations are likely manufactured in China, and besides having a lesser manufacturing quality relative to the sewing, we have found many samples to be contaminated with chemicals just like the contamination found in Chinese drywall and Chinese toys. When contaminated, the electrical impulses can cause a transdermal (across the skin) migration of lead, asbestos, cadmium, etc. into the skin of your feet and can cause permanent damage that is not immediately noticeable, but cannot be reversed. You can cause permanent damage to the nerves in your feet or hands if you use cheap imitation gloves or socks.
Our socks are manufactured here in the US by us, in our own manufacturing facility. The material first undergoes a rigorous QC process, then washed, then special conductive minerals are infused into the material to standardize the conductivity and make the garments sustain repeated washings and to properly and safely carry the unique ReBuilder impulse to your nerves.
Always demand the original, Brand Specific, ReBuilder products.
How does the ReBuilder work?
The ReBuilder uses special electrically conductive socks or gloves (threaded with pure silver strands) or conductive adhesive pads, or twin compartment footbath (your preference) to deliver the healing impulses at the rate of 7.83 signals per second. This specific rate is particularly comforting to nerve cells because it gives each cell sufficient time to repolarize between impulses.
While sitting in your chair or in bed, this soothing signal travels from one foot, up the leg, across the nerve roots in the lower back, then down the other leg to the other foot. This occurs because one sock is electrically positive while the other sock is simultaneously electrically negative, this ensures the signal travels from one foot to the other and effectively treats all the nerves in the lower half of the body at the same time.
The ReBuilder's microprocessor then measures several electrical aspects of your nerves and muscles and automatically adjusts itself to your specific situation and therapeutic needs. The tingling impulses then reverse direction and goes from one foot all the way back to the other foot. In this way, all the nerves from the lumbar area down to your toes are treated.
This back and forth action acts to "wake up" dormant nerves so they function normally again, and re-educates the nerve pathways so you don't get those "short circuits" of shooting pains. It also strengthens weakened leg muscles to help you walk more securely, confidently, and safely.
One portion of the ReBuilder's signal resets the nerve's set points, thus restoring natural sensations and canceling tingling and numbness. Please read on below for a more technical physiological explanation of the physiologic basis of the ReBuilder.
Another unique benefit of the ReBuilder is that it stimulates the brain to release endorphins (pain relievers manufactured by your own body with no side effects) that travel throughout your entire body via the blood stream, helping you to relax and assisting you to fall asleep, and rest all night without medications. These endorphins can also help relieve the pain of arthritis, etc.
Sometimes it can help to understand exactly how your nerves work. To read about the anatomy of your nerves in detail, click here.
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