Gastric Cancer
What Is Gastric Cancer?
It's when healthy cells in your stomach change and start to grow out of control. It tends to get slowly worse over many years. It can start in any part of your stomach and can spread to other areas of your body including, your liver, liver, and bones.
Adenocarcinoma
It's when healthy cells in your stomach change and start to grow out of control. It tends to get slowly worse over many years. It can start in any part of your stomach and can spread to other areas of your body including, your liver, liver, and bones.
Adenocarcinoma
This is the most common type of gastric cancer, making up as many as 95% of the cases. It starts in the tissue of your stomach lining, in the cells that make mucus and other fluids.
Other Types.
Other Types.
Less common types of gastric cancer include ones that start in the cells of your digestive tract --carcinoid tumors and gastric sarcoma-- and lymphomas which are linked to part of your immune system called lymph nodes.
Who Gets Gastric Cancer?
Who Gets Gastric Cancer?
Around 28,000 people get it each year in the US -- about 60% of the people diagnosed with it are over 65. Men are more likely to get it than women. It was the leading cause of cancer death in the US. until the 1930s, but now it's the 14th most type of cancer. Researchers think it may have become less common after refrigerators made it much easier to store fruits and vegetables, and people began eating fewer smoked and salted foods.
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)
This is a kind of bacteria that causes ulcers and inflammation in your stomach, and is one of the main causes of gastric cancer. There are different strains, some of which have a higher risk of cancer. Your doctor can test to see if you have this bacteria. H. Pylori can be treated with antibiotics, which may be another this cancer is less common now than in the 1930s.
The only way to know if you have the bacteria is with a test. If you have a parent, sibling, or a child who's been diagnosed with gastric cancer, you should get tested.
Medical History
The only way to know if you have the bacteria is with a test. If you have a parent, sibling, or a child who's been diagnosed with gastric cancer, you should get tested.
Medical History
You have a higher chance of getting gastric cancer if someone in your family has had it or you've had stomach surgery. A few medical conditions can also raise your chances: pernicious anemia ( when you're very low on red blood cells because you need more B12 ), familial adenomatous polyposis ( when you have polyps in areas like your stomach and colon), and achlorhydria ( when you don't have enough of a certain acid in your digestive fluid).
Lifestyle Matters.
Lifestyle Matters.
Things you do everyday can affect your chances of getting gastric cancer. Eating a lot of smoked foods, salted fish and meat, and pickled vegetables, can boost your risk, along with not getting enough fruit and vegetables. You also might be more likely to get it if you smoke , drink a lot of alcohol or are very overweight.
Endoscopy
Endoscopy
The doctor will probably start with this test. They'll send a tiny camera through a tube down your throat to look into your stomach. If anything doesn't look right they'll take a tiny piece of tissue -- called a biopsy and send it to a lab, where they'll look for cancer cells in the sample under the microscope.
Surgery
Surgery
Your treatment depends on where your cancer is, how far it has advanced, and your overall health. In most cases, surgery to takes out the tumor is the first step. Your doctor might also remove parts of your stomach or take lymph nodes from other parts of your body to look for signs that the cancer has spread.
Credit: WebMD
Credit: WebMD