Introduction:

Esophageal cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related illness that has been described for two thousand years and currently set at the eighth place in incidence worldwide.

Objective:

To describe the clinical-histological features in patients with esophageal cancer at the Guido Valadares National Hospital in Timor-Leste.

Method:

An observational-descriptive and retrospective study was conducted in 106 patients with esophageal cancer related endoscopic and histological diagnosis. All of them attended in the Endoscopy Unit at the Gastroenterology service, from June 2016 to May 2021. Variables such as age group, sex and other risk factors like (clinical manifestations, the onset of symptom, location, endoscopic type and histological type) were analyzed.

Results:

Esophageal cancer was more frequent in male aged 60 and older (65.1%). Smoking and alcohol intake were the predominant risk factors (64.2% and 57.5%, respectively). Most of cases were diagnosed between 3 and 6 months after the onset of symptoms, with dysphagia as the main reason for consultation (98.1%). From the endoscopic point of view, polypoid mass or vegetating lesions found in the middle third of the esophagus predominated (45.3%), with squamous cell carcinoma as the most frequent histological type.

Conclusions:

Study of clinical-histological features in patients with esophageal cancer allows an adequate diagnostic approach to this illness, as well as the development of preventive health actions on the main risk factors identified.

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