Is your heartburn a sign of a more serious condition? Medical experts say chronic heartburn could be a signal of esophageal precancer. They say there are also occupational risks.

What You Need To Know

  • Some risk factors for esophageal cancer include chronic heartburn, obesity, being a white male, and being over the age of 50

  • Esophageal cancer has grown 733% since 1974, per the American Journal of Gastroenterology

  • Esoguard is a noninvasive test to detect esophageal precancer

Many people experience heartburn. But chronic heartburn is what they’re talking about, and firefighters have a 62% greater risk for esophageal cancer than the public according to the Firefighter Cancer Support Network.

The American Journal of Gastroenterology says esophageal adenocarcinoma is the fastest-growing cancer in America, adding that over the last 50 years, it has grown 733% and it is the second-deadliest cancer.

Some health care workers say early diagnosis is a missed opportunity, because they generally know who these patients are. They have symptoms of chronic heartburn or GERD; they’re usually white males over 50; they're previous smokers; they're living with obesity; or they have a family history.

There are also those occupational hazards for firefighters who are around carcinogens all day.

Lucid Diagnostics visits first responders, offering pre-screening events and DNA testing to detect esophageal pre-cancer. Healthline says almost 22,000 Americans were diagnosed with esophageal cancer last year.

“Our teams are calling in and around Western New York Central and Upstate. We’ve done an event already in Western New York with a number of gastroenterologists there at [the University at Buffalo], and now we are working in Central New York," said Lucid President/COO Shaun O'Neil.

Lucid's procedure, with results typically coming back within a week, is a prescription test that needs to be done by a trained person.