{"id":254,"date":"2025-06-05T07:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T07:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/?p=254"},"modified":"2025-06-05T11:11:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T11:11:58","slug":"early-detection-of-stomach-gastric-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/early-detection-of-stomach-gastric-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Early detection of Stomach\/Gastric Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n \n

\n Stomach Cancer or Gastric Cancer is cancer involving the part of gut where digestion\n commences.\n The stomach stores food for a while when acid and enzymes start the digestion process. Most\n of the\n patients with stomach cancer present late in diagnosis since the symptoms are not compelling\n enough early in the disease for patient to seek doctors advise.<\/p>\n

\n

Early symptoms of the disease include<\/h2>\n\n
\n \n <\/div>\n
\n
    \n
  • bloating or stomach fullness,<\/li>\n
  • indigestion,<\/li>\n
  • dyspepsia or heart burn,<\/li>\n
  • early satiety,<\/li>\n
  • nausea<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

    These symptoms are often addressed as non-specific and patients continue to take Anta-acids\n or\n PPIs like Pantocid for long duration after consultation with their family\/general physician.\n Other\n symptoms which include vomiting, loss of appetite\/loss of weight which compels patients for\n evaluation.<\/p>\n\n

    The symptoms which call for urgent attention in these patients are usually:<\/h2>\n
      \n
    • Progressive Weakness \u2013 This occurs if the patient continues to bleed from the\n ulcer\/tumour\n in stomach and eventually his\/her haemoglobin falls appreciably enough to produce\n symptoms of lethargy, weakness, low energy.<\/li>\n
    • Passage of black stools- Patients can miss noticing passage of blackish stools.\n However, the\n passage of black stools points towards bleeding from the foregut and is one of the\n common\n symptoms of gastric cancer.<\/li>\n
    • Anaemia- Patients of stomach cancer eventually develop anaemia due to progressive loss\n of\n blood over a period of time.<\/li>\n
    • Pain in upper abdomen \u2013 This occurs late in gastric cancer and is usually a\n manifestation of\n advanced stomach cancer infiltrating into other organs<\/li>\n
    • Persistent vomiting \u2013 Persistent vomiting occurs late in the disease when the tumour\n has\n blocked the food passage and not allowing food to pass distally. Food gets collected in\n\n stomach and is partially digested giving rise to symptoms of regurgitation and then\n vomiting,\n along with bad breath.<\/li>\n
    • Abdominal distension due to accumulation of fluid in abdomen, also called as ascites \u2013\n this\n suggests that either the disease has spread to<\/li>\n
    • Significant weight loss –<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n

      Diagnosis of Gastric Cancer requires:<\/h2>\n
        \n
      • Upper Gastrointestinal Scopy \/ Endoscopy \u2013 This procedure is done either under sedation\n or\n in awake state by a gastroenterologist. A tube with camera at its end is inserted\n through the\n mouth which is then negotiated through the food pipe to the stomach and into the first\n part\n of small intestine. A thorough inspection of the alimentary tract is done and biopsy is\n taken\n from any suspicious area examined.<\/li>\n
      • Biopsy \u2013 The tissue obtained during Endoscopy is sent for This biopsy is then tested in\n lab\n where a confirmatory diagnosis of cancer can be made.<\/li>\n
      • PET CECT \u2013 A PET scan combined with CECT helps to find out if the cancer has spread to\n different parts of the body or not. It also helps tells about the extent of stomach that\n will be\n needed to be removed to get rid of the tumour. The extent of nodes involved can also be\n estimated with any distant organ involvement. The clinical staging can be done on the\n basis\n of PET CECT findings.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n

        The delay in diagnosis of Gastric cancer occurs due to several reasons:<\/h2>\n
          \n
        • Non-specific symptoms like bloating, abdominal fullness can occur in other conditions\n like\n gastritis or gall stone disease and are not sever enough to compel the patient to seek\n attention in early stage.<\/li>\n
        • Unawareness regarding the symptoms which point towards gastric cancer\/stomach cancer\n <\/li>\n
        • Not reaching the right Doctor \u2013 Most patients go through a number of other speciality\n doctors before finally reaching an Oncologist\/Cancer specialist. All these delay can\n lead to\n progression of disease and hence upstaging the disease in the course. Occasionally such\n patient may be in a stage of disease when cure is not an option anymore.<\/li>\n
        • Denial in acceptance of a Diagnosis of Cancer \u2013 Cancer is grave disease, but with the\n newer\n modalities of management it is possible to get cured if diagnosed in time and treated\n timely\n at the right place.<\/li>\n\n
        • Looking for alternative treatment modalities which don\u2019t have a scientific evidence for\n treatment. These kind of treatment prescribed by alternative medicine practitioner\n further\n lengthen the agony of the patient by causing the disease to progress and hence the\n patient\n ends up in terminal stage of the disease.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n

          If the patient is diagnosed at an early stage the treatment includes removal of part or whole\n of\n stomach (Sub-total\/partial gastrectomy or Total gastrectomy) depending on the part of\n stomach\n involved along with removal of draining lymph nodes and joining of food pipe to the rest of\n small\n intestine. The surgery takes place under general anaesthesia and takes around 3-5 hours\n depending\n on type of surgery. Post-surgery patient is not allowed orally for 3-7 days depending the\n type of\n surgery. If only a part of stomach is removal (Distal\/Subtotal Radical Gastrectomy) then\n oral feeding\n resumes by post-operative day 3 and usually by day 7 in case of Total Gastrectomy. IN case\n of total\n gastrectomy feeding procedure either Naso-Jejunal tube placement or a Feeding jejunostomy is\n done to take care of nutritional need in the immediate post-operative period. We have\n routinely\n been performing these surgeries and have good long term results. Post recovery based on the\n final\n biopsy a stage is assigned and then need for adjuvant chemotherapy\/ Chemo-radiation is\n assessed.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Stomach Cancer or Gastric Cancer is cancer involving the part of gut where digestion commences. The stomach stores food for a while when acid and enzymes start the digestion process. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[122],"tags":[129,123],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269,"href":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions\/269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itishachaudhary.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}