Cancer of the Stomach, the Slow One
Cancer of the Stomach, the Slow One
Among cancer types, cancer of the stomach is one of the slowest. Start on the inner lining of the stomach, the cancer cells grow into a tumor over many years. The disease is also called gastric cancer. The exact cause of cancer in stomach is unknown but few things that can raise the risk for this disease are known. Some of them are bacteria H. pylori infection, gastritis, polyps in the stomach, and long lasting anemia. The other risk factors are including obese, smoking, unhealthy diet, stomach surgery for an ulcer, exposure to asbestos, certain genes, type A blood, and virus Epstein-Barr infection.
Stomach cancer is easiest to cure at early stage. In order to know the condition sooner, you need to know the common symptoms. The symptoms on early stage are including indigestion, heartburn, bloated after meal, loss of appetite, and nausea. If you often experience one or more of those symptoms, it is better to visit doctor. Symptoms that are more serious, when cancer of the stomach grows are including pain in the stomach, vomiting, sudden weight loss, constipation, blood in stool, trouble swallowing, yellowish of the skin or eyes, and swelling in the stomach.
Cancer of the Stomach Diagnosis and Treatments
The diagnosis to know whether someone has stomach cancer or not is starts with physical exam and a check on medical history. Then doctor will continue with several tests to confirm cancer of the stomach. First, doctor will give blood tests to look signs of cancer in the body. The other tests that might take place are upper endoscopy to see what inside the stomach, upper GI series test on X-rays with contrast, CT scan to get detail pictures of the inside of the stomach, and biopsy. For biopsy, doctor needs sample of tissue from stomach that commonly does during endoscopy.
After the diagnosis completed and doctor knows where the location of the cancer and how much it has spread, treatment plan would be made. Many treatments can fight cancer of the stomach and the options are surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, chemo radiation (mix of chemotherapy and radiation), and targeted drugs. Doctor will recommend treatment based on current condition and complexities of the patient.