Gastric Cancer Treatment

Gastric, or stomach, cancer struck 21,500 Americans in 2008 while claiming the lives of 10,800 more, according to the National Cancer Institute. It occurs twice as often in men and is more common in those older than 55. As with any cancer, early treatment is the key for survival.

Significance

• Gastric cancer is not usually diagnosed until it has spread, reducing the success of treatment and the survival rates.

Function

• Gastric cancer generally begins in the glandular cells of the stomach lining but can also develop in the lymphatic tissue and stomach muscle; this makes it easy for the cancer to spread to nearby organs and tissues. The treatment used depends on several issues: whether the cancer is isolated, where it has spread and what stage it is in.

Surgery

• The surgeon will not only remove the cancerous tumor in the stomach, but will also remove some of the non-cancerous tissue and the lymph nodes. This is to ensure that the cancer will not spread throughout the body.

Chemotherapy

• This method uses drugs to destroy the cancer cells and is the main treatment option when a tumor is inoperable. It can also be used in combination with radiation, or be used after surgery if cancer is still present.

Radiation

• This is a localized method of treating cancer so that the healthy tissue surrounding the cancer is not damaged. It can be used in combination with surgery and chemotherapy.

Palliative Therapy

• This treatment for gastric cancer is used primarily in the last stage of the disease, when no other form of treatment is considered to be effective. It provides comfort for the patient in the form of pain management and, in some cases, feeding tubes, but it does not cure the cancer.