LES/Cancer

[t_hajdu]

Greetings,

I'm a 40 yr old wht male under lots of stress. I've had GERD for a number of years and have taken prilosec for the symtoms. In the past 4 months, I have had a series of frightening episodes of extreme fullness, bloating, tachycardia, sweating etc after eating. These symtoms are very much like angina and 2 weeks ago I ended up in the emergency room.

Now the episodes have become so frequent that I can only eat or drink very little at one time.  I have changed my diet and I lost about 10 lbs in the past 2 weeks. I've had a series of tests in the past 3 months, (Barium x-ray, abdominal CT, sonogram) all negative. The CT was last week. My dr believes that I have lower esophageal spasm (LES).

I am concerned about ruling out esophageal cancer. Also, I understand that a motility study wont do much good except confirm what we suspect since theres no real treatment for LES. Is there still a chance that I have cancer? Is there an effective treatment for LES?

Thanks in advance for your response.

[JackieG]

When your gastroenterologist did the endoscopy, she/he would have seen either the discoloration associated with Barrett's Esophagus (a pre-cancerous condition) or a cancerous tumor, if you had either condition. Any suspicious looking esophageal lining would have been sampled and biopsied during the endoscopy. I suspect that you would have been told if there was Barrett's, and I am sure you would have been told if there were signs of esophageal cancer. However, for your peace of mind, you should call the gastroenterologist and ask specifically what the condition of the esophageal lining was, and whether there were any signs of either Barrett's or cancer.

I don't have any personal experience with LES spasms. Perhaps others in the Group do.

Best of luck,
Chicken Soup