~tasha~
Age: 125
6794 days old here
Total Posts: 47628
Points: 0
Location:
United Kingdom, United Kingdom
Gastric (Stomach) Cancer
---------------------------
Your stomach is a J-shaped organ in the upper abdomen where digestion begins
before food is passed to your intestines. Cancer can arise in any part of the
stomach, and is believed to develop slowly over many years.
Stomach cancer -- also referred to as gastric cancer -- is usually preceded by
precancerous changes in the stomach lining, although these changes rarely
produce symptoms. Because stomach cancer often does not cause symptoms until it
is quite advanced, it is not often detected in its earliest stages.
Most stomach cancers (90 to 95 percent) are classified as adenocarcinomas. Other
types of stomach cancer include squamous cell carcinoma, lymphoma, stromal
tumors (cancer of the muscle or connective tissue of the stomach wall), and
carcinoid tumors (cancer of the hormone-producing cells of the stomach).
The following factors increase the risk of stomach cancer:
* infection with the Helicobacter pylori bacterium, which may lead to chronic
inflammation of the inner layer of the stomach and possibly precancerous
changes; recent research has shown that antibiotic treatment may reduce the risk
of stomach cancer -- particularly stomach lymphoma -- in people infected with
this bacterium
* a diet high in consumption of smoked and salted foods, such as smoked fish and
meat and pickled vegetables; conversely, eating a diet high in fruits and
vegetables (particularly those high in beta-carotene and vitamin C can decrease
stomach-cancer risk
* high consumption of red meat; studies show that eating red meat more than 13
times per week can double the risk of stomach cancer
* smoking
* alcohol abuse
* previous stomach surgery, such as removal of stomach tissue in patients with
ulcers
* pernicious anemia, a severe inability to produce red blood cells, due to a
deficiency of vitamin B12
* Menetrier's disease, a very rare condition associated with large folds in the
stomach and low production of stomach acids
* blood type A (for unknown reasons)
* family cancer syndromes, such as Lynch syndrome and familial adenomatous
polyposis, which increase colorectal-cancer risk and slightly increase
stomach-cancer risk
* family history of stomach cancer
* stomach polyps (small benign growths that sometimes develop into stomach
cancers).
When symptoms of stomach cancer arise, they may include:
* indigestion and stomach discomfort
* a bloated feeling after eating
* mild nausea
* loss of appetite
* heartburn
In the more advanced stages of stomach cancer, a patient may experience the
following symptoms:
* blood in the stool
* vomiting
* unexplained weight loss
* stomach pain
These symptoms may also result from more benign illnesses, such as simple
indigestion or a stomach virus. However, if you have these symptoms over a long
period of time, you should see your doctor.
If your doctor suspects that you may have stomach cancer, you may have a barium
x-ray of your upper gastrointestinal system. For this test, you will be asked to
drink a liquid containing barium, which makes your stomach easier to see on an
x-ray. This test can be performed in a doctor's office or a hospital's radiology
department.
The doctor may also look inside your stomach using a gastroscope, a thin,
lighted tube that is inserted into your mouth and guided into your stomach (also
called upper endoscopy). A camera at the end of the tube enables your doctor to
see inside your stomach. Your doctor may take small samples of tissue to examine
for cancer cells. (You will receive a spray of anesthetic into your throat or
other medication to ensure that you are comfortable during this examination. )
A third, newer technique to diagnose stomach cancer is called endoscopic
ultrasound. Similar to gastroscopy, endoscopic ultrasound relies on a thin tube
inserted into the mouth and down into the stomach. At the tip of the tube is a
small ultrasound probe that bounces sound waves off the stomach walls. This test
is useful for estimating how far cancer has spread into the wall of the stomach,
to nearby organs, and to nearby lymph nodes -- a process called staging.
Another staging technique is called laparoscopy. This procedure involves minor
surgery using a small tube with a camera at the end to look inside your abdomen.
Doctors can look at the outside wall of your stomach, examine the lymph nodes,
and evaluate the surfaces of other abdominal organs to determine if the cancer
has spread to those areas.
In addition to these diagnostic tests, your doctor will take your medical
history into account, perform a physical examination, and order laboratory
studies such as blood tests.
The choice of treatment for stomach cancer depends on the stage of the disease
-- that is, how large the tumor has grown, how deeply it has invaded the layers
of the stomach, and whether it has spread to nearby organs, lymph nodes, or
other parts of the body.
Recent investigations suggest that a three-pronged attack on stomach cancer --
utilizing surgery to remove most of the tumor and chemotherapy and radiation
therapy to control cancer spread -- may improve the survival of patients with
stomach cancer. This combination approach is expected to become the standard of
care for patients with this disease.
Surgery
Surgery is the most common form of treatment for stomach cancer. If the results
of staging indicate that surgery is likely to help you, your doctor may perform
one of these operations to remove the cancer:
* subtotal gastrectomy : removal of the part of the stomach that contains the
cancer and parts of other tissues or organs near the tumor (such as the small
intestine or esophagus, depending on the location of the tumor)
* total gastrectomy : removal of the entire stomach and parts of the esophagus,
small intestine, and other tissue near the tumor; in this case the esophagus may
be connected to the small intestine so that you can continue to eat and swallow.
During the surgery, the surgeon will also remove nearby lymph nodes to examine
them for cancer cells. Sometimes the spleen (an organ in the upper abdomen that
filters blood and removes old blood cells) and part of the pancreas are also
removed.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy -- treatment with cancer-killing drugs -- is another option for
treating stomach cancer. It can be given to patients whose cancers have invaded
the layers of the stomach wall, nearby lymph nodes, and nearby organs.
Chemotherapy may be given before surgery (so-called neoadjuvant therapy) -- to
shrink the tumor first -- or after surgery (adjuvant therapy), to kill any
remaining cancer cells. These approaches are being evaluated in clinical trials.
When given alone or with radiation therapy, chemotherapy is also useful in some
patients to relieve stomach-cancer symptoms or to delay cancer recurrence and
extend a patient's life, especially in patients whose cancers cannot be
completely removed through surgery. 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin are the drugs
most commonly used to treat stomach cancer; other drugs (including paclitaxel,
docetaxel, and irinotecan) and new combinations of conventional drugs are
currently under investigation. Some are given intravenously (through a vein),
while others are given intraperitoneally (delivered directly into the abdominal
cavity).
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy is most commonly used in combination with chemotherapy for the
treatment of gastric cancer. New studies reveal that for many patients with
gastric cancer, the addition of radiation therapy plus chemotherapy after
surgery improves survival compared to surgery alone.
~tasha~
Age: 125
6794 days old here
Total Posts: 47628
Points: 0
Location:
United Kingdom, United Kingdom
Could we but draw back the curtain,
That surrounds each others lives,
See the heart and spirit;
Know what spur the action gives;
Often we would find it better,
Purer then we think we would.
We would love each other better,
If we only understood.
