Surprising case of esophageal cancer raises awareness of growing disease

[KMSP Fox 9, April 09, 2019] April is Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month, and the deadly disease is rapidly on the rise.

Allina Health is home to one of the leading medical teams fighting the cancer. Recently, they treated one of their youngest patients who came in with some slight indigestion – and discovered he had a malignant tumor growing quickly.

“Everybody thought it was just going to be a little reflux or maybe an ulcer if he had been taking some ibuprofen, but lo and behold, it was a malignancy,” said Dr. Casandra Anderson, one of the oncologists treating Neal for advanced esophageal cancer.

It's a disease commonly found in older men with histories of smoking and drinking--not in healthy 25-year-old men.