Stomach Cancer – Types, Causes, Diagnosis, and Best Treatment

Cancer is a disease when body cells begin to grow in an abnormal and uncontrolled way. Any body part can be affected by this disease. Once the disease affects one part of the body, then it can also spread to other parts and even spread throughout.

What is Stomach Cancer?

Also known as gastric cancer, it is the form of cancer that originates from the stomach.

How Does Stomach Cancer develop?

Stomach cancer not just develops in one day. This ailment tends to develop over years and months. Before the stomach cancer develops to a full stage, pre-cancerous changes occur within the mucosa or inner lining of the stomach. The early changes rarely lead to harmful symptoms and hence go undetected in most of the cases.

Stomach cancer can begin in different parts of the stomach and can cause varying symptoms depending on the place of origination. Even the location of cancer can also influence the treatment methods. For instance, cancer originating from GE junction is staged and cured in the same way as the esophagus cancer is treated. Furthermore, cancer beginning in cardia of the stomach and then growing into GE junction is also cured with methods similar to treat the esophagus cancer.

Causes of Stomach Cancer

The stomach along with esophagus is a major part of the body’s digestive tract. It is responsible for food digestion and supplying nutrients to the remaining organs of the digestive tracts, such as large and small intestines.

There is a possibility of occurrence of stomach cancer when the healthy cells in the upper digestive system become cancerous. These cells nurture in an uncontrolled way and form a tumour first, which can be then converted to cancer. The procedure is slow and may take many years. For this reason, there are no major symptoms shown, and hence early diagnosis of stomach cancer becomes difficult.

Besides this, the other factors that can trigger stomach cancer among individuals are:

• Obesity or Overweight
• Smoking
• Having a stomach surgery for ulcers
• Consuming a diet high in pickles, smoked food, and salty food
• Type-A blood
• Disturbance in the normal functioning of genes
• Epstein Barr virus infection
• High exposure to molds and asbestos
• Working in metal, coal, rubber, or timber industries

Different Types of Stomach Cancers

Stomach cancer can be of various types as follows:

  1. Lymphoma

It is the cancer of immune system tissue, which is mostly present in the stomach wall. The outlook and treatment methodology of this form of cancer depends on the kind of lymphoma. This form of cancer mainly occurs in adults and is also known as Non-Hodgkin lymphoma that begins from cells known as lymphocytes, which is the part of the immune system of the body.

  2. Adenocarcinoma

This is the most common form of cancer affecting 90 to 95% of people. This stomach cancer is also known as gastric cancer and occurs in adenocarcinoma. These are the cancer cells found in the mucosa or innermost lining of the stomach.

3. Carcinoid Tumor

This tumour begins in the hormone developing cells of the stomach. This form of cancer mostly does not spread to any other body organ.

4. Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor or GIST

Such tumours begin in an early type of cells in the stomach wall known as interstitial cells of the Cajal. These forms of tumours are non-cancerous. This implies they are benign in nature. Such tumours are present in the digestive tract and are mainly present in the stomach.

These are the common types of stomach cancers. But there are more other forms of cell carcinoma, leiomyosarcoma, and small cell carcinoma that begin from the stomach.

Symptoms of Stomach Cancer

At an early stage stomach cancer show symptoms like:

• Heartburn
• Indigestion
• Slight nausea
• Experiencing bloating after every meal
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea

If you experience such symptoms on a regular basis and very often, then this can be an indication of stomach cancer. In this condition, you must consult your doctor immediately.

As the stomach cancer grows, there might be serious symptoms, like:

• Blood in stools
• Stomach pain
• Loss of weight
• Vomiting
• Yellowish skin or eyes
• Trouble swallowing
• Heartburn
• Feeling tired or Weakness

Diagnosing Stomach Cancer

It is essential for you to conduct a physical exam on an initial basis to identify that you have stomach cancer or not. Your doctor would ask about your medical history to identify if there are any risk elements for stomach cancer or not. If he finds anything tricky, then the doctor would perform additional tests, such as:

Blood Tests

This test is performed by taking a blood sample of your body to determine the presence of cancer in the body.

Upper Endoscopy 

This test is performed by placing flexible and thin tubing along with a small camera down to the throat of the patient. The camera helps to look inside the stomach and identify the presence of stomach cancer.

Upper GI series examination 

For this test, you must intake a slight chalky liquid along with a substance known as barium. This fluid would coat your stomach, and hence the results would be clearer on X-ray.

CT scan 

This is a strong and detailed X-ray that is done to get detailed images of the internal structure of the body.

Biopsy 

In this process, the doctor takes a small piece of tissue from the stomach as a sample to test. The collected sample is then put under a microscope to determine the presence of cancer cells. Sometimes, doctors perform this process during endoscopy.

Just like other cancers, even stomach cancer grows at different stages. The treatment is offered depending on the cancer stage. While chemotherapy and radiation therapy are commonly used treatments to cure cancer, we also offer the most advanced way to cure stomach cancer. This is the process of HIPEC.

Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC )

It is a concentrated form of treatment delivered to the abdomen during surgery. Besides stomach cancer, the treatment can cure cancer in ovaries, appendix, and colon. It is less painful, more advanced, and more effective treatment to cure cancer than the conventional chemotherapy process.

Hence, if you wish to get rid of this life-threatening ailment in a painless way, then contact us to know more about stomach cancer and HIPEC procedure.