Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some typical questions asked about stomach cancer and gastrectomy.

What were your symptoms of stomach cancer?  How did you find out you had stomach cancer?

My stomach cancer was caught so early that it wasn’t even staged.  I had been having jags of dry heaving for 6 months and my doc was treating it as GERD.  Then there was some vague nausea. Finally after no success with GERD medications, I was scheduled for an upper and lower endoscope.  The GI doc expected to see signs of GERD and was very surprised to find everything (intestinal track and my stomach lining) looking normal.  He took two random biopsies and one of them contained signet ring cell carcinoma.  He told me later that had the cancer not been found in one of the biopsies that they would not have performed another endoscope until I actually started having symptoms of cancer and most likely the cancer would be so advanced that I would be considered “walking dead”.

From what I’ve been told and what I have researched, until advanced stages, stomach cancer has no symptoms.

What are the listed symptoms of stomach cancer?

Early stomach cancer often does not cause symptoms. As the cancer grows, the most common symptoms are:

• Discomfort or pain in stomach area
• Difficulty swallowing
• Nausea or vomiting
• Weight loss
• Feeling full or bloated after a small meal
• Vomiting blood or blood in stool

Most often, these symptoms are not due to cancer. Other health problems, such as an ulcer or infection, can cause the same symptoms. Anyone who has these symptoms should tell their doctor so that problems can be diagnosed and treated as early as possible.

How is stomach cancer treated?

The choice of treatment depends mainly on the size and location of the tumor, the stage of disease, and your general health.

Treatment for stomach cancer may involve surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy. You’ll probably receive more than one type of treatment. For example, chemotherapy may be given before or after surgery. It’s often given at the same time as radiation therapy.   The only way to “cure” stomach cancer and prevent it from returning is to remove the stomach.

What causes stomach cancer?

When you’re told that you have stomach cancer, it’s natural to wonder what may have caused the disease. But no one knows the exact causes of stomach cancer. Doctors seldom know why one person develops stomach cancer and another doesn’t.

Doctors do know that people with certain risk factors are more likely than others to develop stomach cancer. A risk factor is something that may increase the chance of getting a disease. Studies have found the following risk factors for stomach cancer:

• Helicobacter pylori infection: H. pylori is a bacterium that commonly infects the inner lining (the mucosa) of the stomach. Infection with H. pylori can cause stomach inflammation and peptic ulcers. It also increases the risk of stomach cancer, but only a small number of infected people develop stomach cancer.

• Long-term inflammation of the stomach: People who have conditions associated with long-term stomach inflammation (such as the blood disease pernicious anemia) are at increased risk of stomach cancer. Also, people who have had part of their stomach removed may have long-term stomach inflammation and increased risk of stomach cancer many years after their surgery.

• Smoking: Smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to develop stomach cancer. Heavy smokers are most at risk.

• Family history: Close relatives (parents, brothers, sisters, or children) of a person with a history of stomach cancer are somewhat more likely to develop the disease themselves. If many close relatives have a history of stomach cancer, the risk is even greater.
• Poor diet, lack of physical activity, or obesity: Studies suggest that people who eat a diet high in foods that are smoked, salted, or pickled have an increased risk for stomach cancer. On the other hand, people who eat a diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables may have a lower risk of this disease.

Most people who have known risk factors do not develop stomach cancer. For example, many people have an H. pylori infection but never develop cancer. On the other hand, people who do develop the disease sometimes have no known risk factors.