The following symptoms and complaints may indicate gastric cancer (stomach cancer).
Most of the time, stomach cancer does not cause many symptoms, but the following may still be noticeable:
- Belching*
- Anorexia/appetence (loss of appetite)
- Pallor and lassitude (due tounclear anemia / anemia).
- Weight loss, unclear (weight loss)* * .
- Weakness in performance* *
- Gastric bleeding or gastrointestinal bleeding (gastrointestinal bleeding).
- Meteorism (flatulence)
- Upper abdominal discomfort
- Feeling of pressure in the stomach (gastric pressure)
- Bad breath (halitosis; foetor ex ore)
- Nausea (nausea)/recurrent (recurrent) vomiting* (possibly hematemesis (vomiting of blood; coffee grounds vomiting)).
- Difficulty swallowing (dysphagia).
- Frequent vomiting
- Feeling of fullness*
- Disgust for meat
- Black stools (“tarry stools”; melena)
- Acanthosis nigricans maligna (obligate cutaneous paraneoplasia) – occurrence in adenocarcinomas (in 60% of cases, it is a gastric carcinoma); clinical picture: brownish, symmetrical hyperpigmentation with keratoses in the axillary and inguinal regions, flexures of the joints, as well as in the neck, neck and genital area.
Bold: Patients with one or more of the indicated alarm symptoms should be referred for early esophago-gastro-duodenoscopy (EGD; endoscopy of the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum) with biopsy (tissue sampling).
* Dyspeptic complaints * * Advanced tumor stage + see following.
In advanced stages, the following symptoms may occur:
- Lymph node involvement of the Virchow gland (= supraclavicular lymph node station on the left) (absolute rarity).
- Ascites (abdominal fluid)
- Hepatomegaly (enlargement of the liver)
- Icterus (jaundice)
- Gastric outlet stenosis (narrowing of the gastric outlet)
- Palpable resistance in the upper abdomen
Warning signs (red flags)
- Dyspeptic symptoms (e.g., symptoms of irritable stomach) > 3 weeks that are accompanied by B symptoms* → think of: Gastric carcinoma (gastroscopic and histological clarification required!).
* B-symptomatics
- Unexplained, persistent or recurrent fever (> 38 °C).
- Severe night sweats (wet hair, soaked sleepwear).
- Unwanted weight loss (> 10% percent of body weight within 6 months).
