Patients with gastric cancer do not necessarily undergo surgery immediately after diagnosis.
Although surgery is the only way to cure gastric cancer, not all gastric cancers are amenable to surgery.
- Early gastric cancer can usually be operated on directly.
- Progressive gastric cancer can be operated on first if the surgeon assesses that radical resection is possible. However, for some tumors, a combination of treatments such as chemotherapy can be used first to shrink the tumor and reduce the stage, thus increasing the chance of radical resection. For gastric cancer with deeper local infiltration, it may be difficult to be resected radically by surgery, or it may be difficult to be resected. Even if surgical resection is not possible, the survival and quality of life can be prolonged and improved through comprehensive treatment.
- Metastatic gastric cancer, where surgery is generally not recommended, requires comprehensive treatment with systemic drug therapy. However, sometimes palliative surgery may be performed to relieve serious complications such as obstruction, perforation, and bleeding, when the patient is evaluated for tolerability.