Introduction:

Esophageal cancer is a disease present worldwide, especially in developing nations. A bibliographic review was carried out in biomedical databases using the Google Scholar search engine. 24 of 62 articles were selected; 22 (91.6 %) of the last five years, published in Spanish and English, related to the proposed objective.

Objective:

To describe some aspects of esophageal cancer, with emphasis on the epidemiological, etiopathogenic and surgical treatment.

Development:

Esophageal cancer is more common in men, with a male/female ratio of 6:1, although in high-risk populations the incidence is the same in both sexes; although some report that the ratio is between 3 and 10 men for every woman, depending on the geographical area. High frequency areas are: Asia, Central and South of Africa. Squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma represent 95.0 % of all esophageal tumors. Open or minimally invasive esophagectomy is the basic pillar of surgical treatment.

Conclusions:

In the etiology of esophageal cancer, molecular, genetic and environmental factors play an important role. Diagnosis in advanced stages predominates due to the late onset of symptoms and insufficient screening. Surgical treatment is a fundamental pillar for the first three stages of the disease, accompanied or not by adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy (in stage II).

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