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Undergoing treatment for Stage 2 esophageal cancer felt tough at times, but Mark Sevillano Jr. did not experience too many side effects from chemotherapy. Courtesy Mark Sevillano Jr. <\/p>\nAfter three stressful years, Mark Sevillano Jr. felt like his life was falling into place. At the start of 2024, he began working out at the gym three days a week and eating healthier foods. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt better and just when I started feeling better, I \u2026 couldn\u2019t really swallow my food comfortably,\u201d the 41-year-old from Santa Fe Springs, California, tells TODAY.com. \u201cI felt like it almost would get stuck in my throat.\u201d <\/p>\n
He\u2019d \u201cchug\u201d water, and that often helped the food move through his esophagus. After two months, his symptoms worsened, and he visited a doctor, who reluctantly ordered a swallow test for Sevillano. Before he could undergo the exam, he visited the emergency room, where he learned he had esophageal cancer. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would have never imagined that I had any cancer, let alone esophageal cancer,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve never even said the word esophagus. It was not on my radar at all.\u201d <\/p>\n
Transformation Leads to Diagnosis<\/p>\n
In 2021, Sevillano’s 11-year marriage ended in divorce, and the dad of two was stressed. At the same time, he was in college completing his teaching degree. By 2024, he had graduated from college and finally began to feel settled as he regularly attended the gym, ate healthy foods and ran a few 5Ks. <\/p>\n
\u201c’I\u2019m healing,’\u201d he recalls thinking. \u201cI was losing a little bit of weight, but I thought it was because of my new lifestyle.\u201d <\/p>\n
Soon after, his swallowing problems began. At first, drinking a lot of water helped. But after two months, swallowing became even more difficult. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would have to literally pound my chest with my fist to help break down the pathway to allow my food to go down,\u201d Sevillano explains. \u201cThat was so odd now that I think back on it. But at the time I thought, \u2018Oh, I need a little extra help to digest my food.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
Undergoing treatment for Stage 2 esophageal cancer felt tough at times, but Mark Sevillano Jr. did not experience too many side effects from chemotherapy. Courtesy Mark Sevillano Jr. <\/p>\n
His parents urged him to visit his doctor, and after a couple of weeks, he did. But his primary care doctor \u201cdidn\u2019t sound too concerned\u201d because Sevillano was young and there was no family history of cancer. Still, Sevillano asked for a swallow test \u2014 which his mother, who is a nurse \u2014 told him to request. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was like, \u2018We\u2019ll schedule a swallow test in the future. I\u2019m not too worried about it,\u2019\u201d Sevillano recalls. \u201cLooking back on it, I was like, \u2018Wow, there are so many red flags.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
He scheduled the appointment for several months later. But his swallowing \u201cgot progressively worse.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t even swallow liquid anymore,\u201d he says. \u201cIt would sit in my throat, almost like a drain that is clogged up, and it\u2019s filling up with water. You need to unplug the drain. It felt like that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sevillano visited the emergency room and, at first, the doctors were \u201cperplexed\u201d by his swallowing difficulties. But they conducted bloodwork and even had him undergo a CT scan. At about 4 a.m., his blood test results returned. <\/p>\n
\u201c(The doctor) said, \u2018Hey, to let you know your bloodwork came back great and the next thing we\u2019re waiting on is your scan, and I\u2019m sure that\u2019s going to come back great as well,\u2019\u201d Sevillano recalls. <\/p>\n
Less than an hour later, the doctor returned with a grim look on his face. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018Unfortunately, we got your scan back and we found a mass in the center of your chest, in your lower part of your esophagus,\u2019\u201d Sevillano says. <\/p>\n
At the time, he didn\u2019t realize doctors sometimes interchangeably use mass and tumor, so he wasn\u2019t too worried. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf he would have said, \u2018You have a tumor,\u2019 I would have freaked out a little more,\u2019\u201d Sevillano says. <\/p>\n
He stayed in the hospital to undergo tests, including a biopsy. But when doctors attempted it, they struggled to pass the scope through all the inflammation in his throat. Though they tried a smaller scope, the sample they removed wasn\u2019t enough to determine if it was cancerous. Still, they released Sevillano from the hospital, and he ran a 5K two days later. <\/p>\n
Sevillano’s doctors scheduled a second biopsy. But before that happened, he became very ill. <\/p>\n
\u201c(This) is where I almost died,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
As he waited for the new biopsy and maintained a liquid-only diet, Sevillano became tired. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy body just didn\u2019t feel right,\u201d he says. \u201cI started to feel light-headed, almost as if I\u2019m going to faint.\u201d <\/p>\n
He rested on the couch and began \u201cconvulsing,\u201d and \u201cshaking and shivering.\u201d After he put on a coat and a hat to warm himself up, his mom noticed he was too pale. They returned to the emergency room, where doctors diagnosed him with sepsis, a potentially fatal overreaction in the body to infection. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy body was shutting down and they had to pump me with any type of antibiotics to fight the infection that was rapidly going through my bloodstream,\u201d Sevillano says. \u201cFor the next four days, I was fighting and trying to get the infection out of my body.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"His,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/mark-sevillano-esophagael-cancer-mc-250813-05-fa8ac9.jpg\")
Mark Sevillano Jr.’s recovery from an esophagectomy felt gruelling.Courtesy Mark Sevillano Jr. <\/p>\n
As he began to recover, doctors performed the biopsy, and they diagnosed him with Stage 2 esophageal cancer in June 2024. <\/p>\n
\u201cI got thrown into a world of \u2018Now you have cancer,\u2019\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
Doctors quickly came up with a treatment plan, which included four rounds of chemotherapy to shrink the tumor followed by surgery to remove the mass and most of his esophagus, what is known as an esophagectomy. For the most part, chemotherapy caused exhaustion, brain fog and some neuropathy, but after the fourth round, he \u201cstarted actually vomiting black stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was still awful,\u201d he says. \u201cI took it like a champ. But I think it could have been worse.\u201d <\/p>\n
Surgery took place in October and was intense. Doctors removed six inches of his esophagus, which is about 10 inches long in total, and a strawberry-sized tumor. Doctors used his upper intestine to create a new esophagus connected to his remaining organ. <\/p>\n
\u201cI went in with a smile on my face and said, \u2018OK, let\u2019s do this. Let\u2019s take this tumor out,\u2019\u201d Sevillano says. \u201cWhen I woke up, I had maybe eight tubes in my side, in my face. I was in severe pain.\u201d <\/p>\n
After recovering in the hospital for several days and undergoing more tests, Sevillano returned home. About a month later, he underwent one more round of chemotherapy. Doctors recommended that he have another three, but he felt overwhelmed by his prior chemotherapy and treatment and elected to stop. Since his surgery, there has been no evidence of disease. He will undergo regular scans for five years. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had my six-month check-up scan and that came out with no detection of cancer,\u201d he says. \u201cI went to the beach and celebrated six months of being cancer-free.\u201d <\/p>\n
An Increase in GI Cancers in Young People <\/p>\n
Sevillano is part of a trend of young people being diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancers, which include colorectal, stomach, pancreatic and esophageal cancers. These diagnoses are increasing faster than any other type of cancer in adults under 50, according to a review published in the journal JAMA<\/a>. <\/p>\n While colorectal cancer cases in young people have increased the most, pancreatic, stomach and esophageal cancer diagnoses are also on the rise, according to NBC News reporting<\/a>. The latter three do not have a screening test like colorectal cancer does, making them harder to diagnose early. <\/p>\n While more research is needed, the cause of all gastrointestinal cancer in young adults could be the same. Researchers suspect causes include having a sedentary lifestyle, being obese, smoking, drinking alcohol and eating an unhealthy diet. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really what people were doing or exposed to when they were infants, children, adolescents that is probably contributing to their risk of developing cancer as an adult, Kimmie Ng, co-author of the paper and director of the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, told NBC News. <\/p>\n![\"His,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/mark-sevillano-esophagael-cancer-mc-250813-04-0df3cb.jpg\")
While Mark Sevillano Jr. worked as a teacher, he is now a full-time wedding officiant.Courtesy Mark Sevillano Jr. <\/p>\n
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Mark Sevillano Jr. enjoys spending time with his children and is glad that after undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer, he has no evidence of disease.Courtesy Mark Sevillano Jr. <\/p>\n