Smoking causes 80 to 90 percent of all cancers of the esophagus -- almost always in combination with alcohol use -- and is responsible for 15,000 deaths in the U.S. every year. If you drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes, you are more likely than a smoker who does not drink alcohol to get esophageal cancer because alcohol and smoking act together to increase a person's risk of this disease. However, there is no real evidence that tobacco smoking alone increases a person's risk of esophageal cancer.
explanation
The esophagus is especially susceptible to the cancer-causing effects of smoking because substances from cigarette smoke can reach this part of the body very easily. When a person smokes, cancer-causing agents from the smoke get into the mouth and the upper part of the throat. Then, when the person swallows, the cancer-causing substances move down into the esophagus.
Cancer-causing substances can also get into the esophagus as a result of coughing. When people cough, they bring up mucus from their lungs. Usually, the mucus is then swallowed -- which means that it goes into the esophagus. If a person smokes, the mucus from the lungs is full of cancer-causing substances from cigarette smoke. So when smokers swallow mucus, they're swallowing cancer-causing agents, too.
