Stomach (Gastric) Cancer

A. Stomach or Gastric cancer is cancer that starts in the stomach. Stomach cancer can occur in several types. Lymphoma, are cancers of the immune system tissue that are sometimes found in the wall of the stomach. About 4% of stomach cancers are lymphomas.
Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) are rare tumors that start in very early forms of cells in the wall of the stomach called interstitial cells of Cajal. Not all of the GIST tumors are cancerous, some are benign (non-cancerous) and some are cancerous.
Tumors that start in the hormone-making cells of the stomach are called Carcinoid tumors. What is rare about these are that they are usually not spread to other organs. About 3% of stomach cancers are carcinoid tumors.
The most common type of stomach cancer is called adenocarcinoma and it starts from one of the common cell types found in the lining of the stomach, known as the mucosa. About 90-95% of cancers of the stomach are adenocarcinomas. When the term stomach or gastric cancer is used, it almost always refers to adenocarcinoma cancer. The following report describes adenocarcinoma.

Stomach cancer tend to, in opposite to many other cancer types, develop slowly over many years. Usually pre-cancerous changes occur in the inner lining (mucosa) of the stomach before a true cancer develops. Because of these early changes who rarely cause symptoms, they often go undetected.
Tests that can help diagnose stomach cancer include:
* Physical exam and history.
*Complete blood count (CBC) to check for anemia.
Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) with biopsy to examine the stomach tissue. EGD involves putting a tiny camera down the esophagus (food tube) to look at the inside of the stomach (Gastroscopy).
Stool test to check for blood in the stools.

The stage of a cancer is a description of how far the cancer has spread. The stomach cancer’s stage is an important factor when it comes to choosing treatment options and predicting a patient’s prognosis (outlook).
For stomach cancer there are two types of stages. The clinical stage of the cancer is based on the results of physical exams, endoscopy, biopsies and other tests, so that is the doctor’s best estimate of the extent of the cancer.
If surgery is done, the pathologic stage can be determined using the same test results used for the clinical stager, plus what is found from tissues removed during surgery.
The clinical stage is used to help plan treatment. But sometimes, though, the cancer has spread further than the clinical stage estimates. The pathologic stage can more accurately predict the patient’s outlook, because the pathologic stage is based on what was found at the surgery. There is a staging system called the TNM system who is based on the pathologic stage. Different numbers and letters describes how far and how wide the cancer has spread.

There are a lot of discussions about risk factors today about cancer. A risk factor can be something that affects your chance of getting a disease such as cancer. Although risk factors don’t tell us everything, if you have a risk factor, let’s say you smoke, that does not mean that you are getting the disease. The underlying causes of stomach cancer is still unclear yet, scientists have found several risk