Hi - I have read pretty much every thread on the Oesophageal forum by now. My Dad has recently been diagnosed. Told at endoscopy there didn’t appear anything sinister and diagnosed with oesophagitis but biopsies taken as a precaution. Consultant called a week later to confirm he had reviewed the endoscopy and could see no cause for concern - advised he was still awaiting the biopsy results but he wasn’t expecting anything to come back so not to expect to hear from him again.
Unfortunately he rang back a week later to say one of the biopsies had came back positive. He actually said he was extremely surprised by the finding and reiterated this in his follow up letter.
Dad was sent for a CT scan which he had last week and they rang to say the CT has shown no signs of spread so he is now awaiting a PET scan to confirm the cancer is only in one area before treatment is decided. We have taken this as good news and hoping that this news together with the consultants initial shock at this diagnosis meant/means that it has been caught early however the letter from the consultant which confirms the positive biopsy mentions that he has signet cell adenocarcinoma and from lots of Google searches (stupid I know) it appears that this particular type (signet) doesn’t always show on scans and is good at “hiding” - hoping for some reassurance or real-life stories that the CT would have picked up any spread?
Surely the medical professionals know what they are doing and wouldn’t have referred for a CT scan if they knew it wouldn’t pick anything up. I’ve also read that sometimes you are simply told you have adenocarcinoma and not told the subtype therefore the data on signet cell isn’t always accurate if that makes sense.
Appreciate any replies
My husband was told the exact same - doesn’t look like cancer - but it was. The pet scan picked up a completely separate cancer in the bowel. He had 4 rounds of chemo, the oesophagus removed and part of his bowel (back to back operations). 2weeks in hospital followed by another 4 rounds of chemo.
I won’t lie, it’s been 9 months of hell, but he started his phased return to work yesterday, he looks fantastic (he is now the weight he was when I met him at 17) and can eat much more varied food (and larger portions) than we thought he would. We won’t know if he’s clear until he’s 5 years from the operation but we are just happy to be getting some normality back. We’re off to Greece in 3 weeks.
Be strong - think positively, the fact they thought it wasn’t cancerous hopefully means it’s early stages and operable. I have everything crossed for you 
Cathy xx
It sounds exactly the same as your dads. The oesophageal cancer may have saved my husbands life as they wouldn’t have found the bowel cancer without a pet scan cos it was such early stages. It did not show up on the Ct scan.
the bowel was completely unrelated - just doubly unlucky! I think the spread tends to be stomach or lungs but just try and stay positive- tackle each step one at a time - I tried to think of the whole journey and got completely overwhelmed so had to think next step scan, next step chemo etc you can’t eat an elephant in one go!
