Stomach cancer

Synonyms

Medical: Stomach carcinoma, stomach tumor, stomach Ca, adenocarcinoma of the stomach, cardiac tumor

Definition

Stomach cancer (carcinoma of the stomach) is the fifth most common cancer in women and the fourth most common cancer in men. Stomach carcinoma is a malignant, degenerated, uncontrollably growing tumor that originates from the cells of the stomach lining. The causes of stomach cancer are discussed to include nitrosamines from food, nicotine and Helicobacter pylori. In most cases, the tumor causes symptoms late in the disease process, when it is already well advanced. Due to the late diagnosis, stomach cancer is often treated late, so that this type of cancer has a rather unfavorable prognosis for the patients.

Frequency

The frequency peak of stomach cancer is beyond the age of 50, with men being twice as likely to develop stomach cancer as women. The incidence of stomach cancer is declining worldwide. However, it is still the fourth most common tumor in men and the fifth most common in women.

There is also an increased tendency in favor of the carcinoma in the cardiac area (= stomach entrance, see also anatomy stomach). The disease rate is about 10 per 100,000 people in Germany. In other countries, e.g. in Japan, stomach carcinoma is twice as frequent. It is assumed that this is due to different eating habits, since Japanese people who have emigrated to the USA and have adopted American eating habits no longer have a higher rate of the disease.

Esophagus (esophagus)
Cardia
Corpus
Small Curvature
Fundus
Large Curvature
Duodenum (duodenum)
Pylorus
Antrum

Symptoms and signs

Stomach cancer is usually a so-called “silent” tumor – which means that it does not manifest itself at all in the early stages or only with very unspecific symptoms. This often means that the cancer can grow over a long period of time and many of the first signs are only attributed to a sensitive stomach or stress. The signs (symptoms) of stomach cancer only appear in the advanced stages and are usually very unspecific.

Almost all cancers have characteristic symptoms – the so-called B-symptoms. These include recurrent fever – often with only borderline elevated temperatures – unwanted weight loss within a short period of time and the occurrence of night sweats. Other general tumor symptoms are lack of concentration, exhaustion, reduced performance and fatigue.

Many stomach cancer patients also report complaints in the gastrointestinal system. Especially after or during eating, pain in the upper abdomen can occur, often accompanied by heartburn, nausea, bad breath caused by the stomach and upper abdominal pressure. Vomiting can occur especially if the tumor is located at the entrance of the stomach (cardia) or at the exit of the stomach (pylorus).

There are also frequent complaints of loss of appetite and an unpleasant feeling of fullness even after small meals, often accompanied by a very bloated stomach and flatulence. It is precisely these signs that often occur in the context of other harmless diseases of the gastrointestinal tract or under severe stress and are therefore often not associated with a serious cancer. Therefore, it is important to consult your family doctor even if heartburn or frequent severe flatulence occurs repeatedly, so that he can diagnose the cause and treat it appropriately.

Another sign of stomach cancer is reduced appetite. Patients often feel a sudden aversion to certain foods – mostly meat – and suddenly can no longer tolerate other foods. However, this phenomenon can also occur with other stomach diseases and other types of cancer (e.g. colon cancer).

In the late stage of the disease, stomach bleeding can occur, which is noticeable either by vomiting blood or by black stool. As the disease progresses, swallowing difficulties (dysphagia), especially with tumors in the area of the stomach entrance, and upper abdominal pain increasingly occur. As with almost every tumor disease, weight loss (tumor cachexia), increased body temperature (tumor fever) and loss of performance occur in the later stages.

If cancer seeds (metastasis) in the abdomen (abdominal cavity), fluid accumulation (ascites) can occur there, resulting in swelling of the abdomen. In rare cases, the tumor may even be palpable in the abdomen.Existing metastases in the liver can lead to swelling and loss of function of the liver with yellowing of the skin (icterus). If there are metastases (metastases of daughter tumors) in the skeleton, bone pain may occur, which is characterized by a particularly strong, destructive pain character.

If a lot of bone tissue is destroyed by the tumor, pathological (pathological) fractures (fractures) can occur even without an accident (e.g. vertebral body fracture, femoral neck fracture, etc.). Metastases in the lung sometimes cause shortness of breath (dyspnoea) and coughing up blood (haematemesis). Since stomach cancer is easy to treat, especially in its early stages, one should listen to one’s own body and not shy away from a visit to a doctor even if the symptoms are generally unspecific.