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The survival rate for esophageal cancer goes on decreasing year by year and is generally very low. The treatment for esophageal cancer has improved in the recent times and hence the survival rate has slightly increased. Initially the cancerous cell growth starts from inside the esophagus and then slowly spread outwards. The ailment gets more severe and the rate of survival keeps on decreasing as the patient passes every stage.

The survival rate for esophageal cancer depends on the treatment and the treatment decision is influenced by many factors. The TNM cancer system uses some important information such as the tumor size and how far it has spread in the esophagus, whether the cancer has spread to the nearby lymph nodes or to the nearby organs etc. There are four stages in the esophageal cancer and the rate of survival for the patient decreases stage by stage.

Survival rates for the affected patients may vary from patient to patient depending on their life style, genes, food they intake, health quality, exercise they adopt, the type of treatment chosen by them, treatment duration and so on. The survival rates for different stages of esophageal cancer are described below.

In the initial stage (0th stage), the survival rate is nearly 70% and the cancer affected cells are confined only to the inner most layers or the lining epithelium. In the first stage, the survival rate is nearly 60% and the cancerous cells will invade and go beyond the epithelium layer to reach the submucosa. In the second stage, the survival rate is initially 40% and the cancerous cells spread further invading the muscular layer of the esophagus and also the adventitia.

The survival rate is nearly 20% in the later part of the second stage and the cancer cells spread beyond the epithelium. In the third stage which is called locally advanced cancer, the adventitia layer is invaded and it also spreads to lymph nodes and near by organs. The survival rate for this third stage of esophageal cancer is only 15%. In the fourth stage (final stage), initially the rate of survival may be 15% but as the cancerous cells starts spreading into the organs near by, the survival rate is merely low and is 5%. Finally the cell invades into other organs, lymph nodes etc in the last stage.

The chances of survival and the rate of survival is more when the presence of esophageal cancer is diagnosed in the earlier stage for the patients. The survival rate also depends on how the affected patients respond to the chemotherapy and radiation methods of treatment including the surgical removal of any residual tumor. It is also one of the main factors for determining the chances of survival for the patient.

Generally the overall 5 year survival rate for the esophageal cancer will remain approximately 20-25% for all stages. It also depends on the spread of the disease whether it includes the lymph nodes or not. The patients suffering from esophageal cancer without lymph node involvement will have a better prognosis and survival rate when compared to those patients with lymph nodes.