What Is Stomach Cancer And How It Is Treated?

Stomach Cancer begins with abnormal cell growth. In your abdomen, just below your ribs, you have a muscular sac called the stomach. During digestion, your stomach breaks down and digests the food you eat. The most common type of this cancer is found in men, and over half of those diagnosed are over 75 years old.

What Is Stomach Cancer?

Cancer is caused when the body’s cells grow out of control. Nearly any cell in the body can become cancerous, and can then spread to other parts of the body. Visit What Is Cancer? to learn more about cancer and how it begins and spreads.

When cells in the stomach start growing out of control, stomach cancer, also called gastric cancer, results.

The stomach

In order to understand stomach cancer, one must understand the normal structure and function of the stomach.

An important part of the digestive system in the stomach, which functions like a sac.

Upon chewing and swallowing, food enters the esophagus, a tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach. Located beneath the diaphragm (the thin sheet of breathing muscle under the lungs), the gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) connects the esophagus to the stomach. When gastric juice is secreted, the stomach begins digesting the food. The food and gastric juice are mixed in the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine.

What Are Stomach Cancer Treatments?

There are several ways to treat stomach cancer. Depending on how long you’ve had the disease or how far it has spread in your body, your doctor will recommend one.

Stage 0: The stomach lining has an abnormal group of cells that could develop into cancer. Surgery can usually cure it. You may need to have part or all of your stomach removed, as well as nearby lymph nodes — small organs that function as part of your body’s germ-fighting system.

Stage I: Your stomach has a tumor in its lining, and it may have spread to your lymph nodes. With stage 0, you may have surgery to remove part or all of your stomach and nearby lymph nodes. Additionally, you may be treated with chemotherapy or radiation. During these treatments, the tumor can be shrunk before surgery and cancer can be killed after surgery.

Cancer is killed by chemotherapy. Chemoradiation uses high-energy beams to destroy cancer cells.

Stage II: Perhaps cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes and deeper layers of the stomach. The main treatment for stomach cancer is surgery to remove part or all of the stomach and the surrounding lymph nodes. There’s a good chance you’ll get chemotherapy or radiation beforehand, and maybe one afterward as well.

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