12) Bone pain
In advanced esophageal cancer, the last stage is metastasis or cancer spread to other tissues, and one of the most common is bone tissue. Metastasis to the bones would result in bone pain that is initially mild and becomes more common and severe over time.
Other common sites of metastasis are the liver, the lung, and the brain. Liver metastases are likely to cause jaundice, healing problems and abdominal pain. Lung metastasis may cause coughing, chest pain, and various respiratory symptoms. Brain metastasis would cause various symptoms depending on the exact location of the cancer spread.
References
Enzinger, P. C., & Mayer, R. J. (2003). Esophageal cancer. New England Journal of Medicine, 349(23), 2241-2252.
Zhang, Y. (2013). Epidemiology of esophageal cancer. World journal of gastroenterology: WJG, 19(34), 5598.
Holmes, R. S., & Vaughan, T. L. (2007, January). Epidemiology and pathogenesis of esophageal cancer. In Seminars in radiation oncology (Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 2-9). WB Saunders.
Wu, S. G., Zhang, W. W., He, Z. Y., Sun, J. Y., Chen, Y. X., & Guo, L. (2017). Sites of metastasis and overall survival in esophageal cancer: a population-based study. Cancer management and research, 9, 781.
