10 Esophageal Cancer Symptoms
9. Fatigue
Fatigue is a medical term that can be defined as a pathologic sensation of constant tiredness that is very profound and has no identifiable cause. Additionally, this extreme tiredness generally does not improve with rest. It is a symptom of a variety of medical conditions, including malignancies.
Fatigue is a common symptom of many types of malignancies and esophageal cancer is no exception. Additionally, the chronic blood loss that occurs in this disease can cause anemia, which also causes fatigue. Recall that anemia is a medical condition that involves a reduction in the total number of circulating red blood cells (RBCs). These cells are in charge of transporting oxygen to the tissues, and they carry it within a molecule known as hemoglobin. Specifically, oxygen in hemoglobin is bound by heme, which is an iron-containing molecule. Hence, when chronic gastrointestinal bleeding occurs, excessive loss of body iron can also take place. This explains why esophageal cancer can lead to iron-deficiency anemia and fatigue.
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