Treatment of Stomach Cancer

Although in theory stomach cancer should be easy to treat, diagnosis is all too often made during the advanced stages of the disease. Once the cancer reaches this advanced stage, prognosis is often extremely poor.

If the cancer has not spread outside the stomach, then surgery will be carried out to either remove the whole stomach (total gastrectomy) or just the affected part of it (partial gastrectomy). If a total gastrectomy is performed, the surgeon will connect the oesophagus directly to the small intestine; the patient will still be able to eat and drink after this operation, although they will need to make changes to their diet and eating habits. Other tissue, organs and lymph nodes may also need to be removed if the cancer has spread. Chemotherapy is often used after surgery to reduce the chances of the cancer returning. This is known as adjuvant chemotherapy.

In advanced cases, surgery may be carried out to relieve some of the symptoms, rather than as an attempt to remove or cure the cancer. Further treatment will also concentrate simply on relieving symptoms. This may include chemotherapy to reduce the size of the cancer, reduce pain and prolong life expectancy. Radiotherapy is also used to relieve symptoms in advanced cases where the cancer has spread outside the stomach.