Is esophageal cancer hereditary?

Patients with esophageal cancer often worry about whether their next generation will also suffer from esophageal cancer. In this regard, Wang Qiang, an expert at the Thoracic Surgery Center of Shanghai Yuanda Cardiothoracic Hospital, said that people have gradually realized through observation that lifestyle and exposure to certain carcinogens in the environment can increase the body's susceptibility to esophageal cancer. It has also been found that some patients with congenital immune deficiencies have a much higher risk of esophageal cancer than normal people.

So, is esophageal cancer hereditary? Director Wang Qiang pointed out that esophageal cancer is not a direct hereditary disease, but it has a genetic susceptibility. The onset of esophageal cancer often tends to cluster in families. If someone in the family suffers from esophageal cancer, then his children will have several times more chances of suffering from esophageal cancer than the average person. This is called hereditary familial cancer. For hereditary familial esophageal cancer, those who often have defective genes are more likely to suffer from esophageal cancer.

A large amount of clinical data confirms that if there is an esophageal cancer patient in the family, the offspring will not necessarily suffer from esophageal cancer. We have also found a very small number of esophageal cancer families, in which about one-third of the members have esophageal cancer one after another, and the incidence rate of men and women is the same, and they often suffer from the same type of cancer. Such esophageal cancer families must be related to genetics, but in fact, there are not many such families.

However, people who are at risk of cancer do not necessarily get cancer, but they are more likely to get esophageal cancer than the average person. So how should esophageal cancer be treated? The occurrence of esophageal cancer is mainly due to internal and external factors. Esophageal cancer essentially has internal factors, coupled with external carcinogenic factors, such as some radiation, smoking, etc., esophageal cancer will occur.

In fact, cancer is not scary. If we can improve our understanding of esophageal cancer and master its basic knowledge, it will be very necessary for maintaining health.