Every year, 400,000 new gastric cancer patients are found in China, accounting for 42% of the world’s gastric cancer incidence. The proportion of gastric cancer patients among young people under 30 years old has doubled from 1.7% in the 1970s to 3.3% at present, many of whom are white-collar workers.
Why is there an increasing number of young white-collar patients with stomach cancer?
There are three main reasons for this: firstly, serious lack of sleep, secondly, irregular diet, and thirdly, excessive work pressure.
In addition, the incidence of stomach cancer is related to various factors such as unreasonable diet structure and serious environmental pollution. Preference for smoked, high-salt and spicy food, and love of alcohol and tobacco can disrupt the normal function of the gastrointestinal tract and seriously damage the gastric mucosa, leading to gastritis, gastric ulcer and other diseases and increasing the chance of cancer. Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection also greatly increases the risk of gastric cancer. According to the World Health Organization report, nearly half of the newly discovered gastric cancer each year is related to H. pylori infection, and the risk of gastric cancer increases 2~3 times for H. pylori infected people.
We should prevent gastric cancer from the following aspects.
1. Develop good eating habits: diet should be regular and quantitative, avoid overeating, eating too fast and eating too hot food, so as not to stimulate or damage the gastric mucosa.
2, eat more fresh vegetables and fruits: eat more fresh vegetables and fruits containing vitamins A, B, E and beta carotene; properly increase the strong protein, soy products, improve the nutritional situation, enhance the body’s resistance. Nutritional balance of the diet can improve the immune function of the human organism, to protect the gastric mucosa.
3, do not drink polluted water: contaminated water sources contain a variety of carcinogenic metal ions, so be sure to use regular tap water, and people in rural areas try to use well water.
4.Avoid long-term consumption of salt-pickled food: eat less or no pickles. Pickles contain a large amount of nitrite and secondary amines, which can synthesize nitrosamines under the action of suitable acidity or bacteria in the stomach, and these compounds are very strong carcinogenic substances.
5. Eat less smoked and fried food: smoked fish and bacon contain a large amount of carcinogenic substances, and fried, baked and burnt food and reused high temperature cooking oil also contain such carcinogenic substances.
6, do not eat moldy food: mold in food is caused by contaminated mold, some of which are toxic fungus, a very strong carcinogenic substances, some food in the role of toxic fungi produce a large number of nitrite and secondary amines, can be synthesized in the stomach and can cause cancer by nitrosamines.
7.Limit the intake of tobacco and alcohol: Smoke contains many carcinogenic or carcinogenic substances, which is one of the causes of esophageal cancer and gastric cancer. Although alcohol itself is not a carcinogenic substance, strong alcohol can stimulate gastric mucosa, damage mucosal tissue and promote the absorption of carcinogenic substances.
8.Actively treat precancerous lesions: Precancerous lesions are benign diseases with cancer tendency, such as chronic atrophic gastritis, chronic gastric ulcer, gastric polyp, partial gastric resection, giant gastric mucosal hypertrophy, warty gastritis, etc.. People suffering from such diseases must often go to hospitals for examination and treatment to eliminate precancerous lesions and prevent the occurrence of gastric cancer.
9. Be alert to family history of cancer: A large number of clinical records and research results have proved that the incidence of gastric cancer is significantly higher in people with genetic family history of cancer than the general population.
If patients can detect gastric cancer when it is limited to the mucosal layer of the stomach wall, the 5-year survival rate can reach 95%; but unfortunately, the early diagnosis rate of gastric cancer is less than 10%. In China, most patients only seek medical consultation when symptoms appear, and by then, the disease has already developed to an advanced stage.
Screening for gastric cancer including H. pylori screening, barium meal imaging or endoscopy in high-risk areas and high-risk populations is crucial to control the incidence of gastric cancer and reduce the mortality rate of gastric cancer.
Patients who have been diagnosed with gastric cancer should not be discouraged, but should be actively treated. Surgery is preferred for early gastric cancer patients, and most patients need adjuvant radiotherapy after radical surgery. For patients who cannot be surgically resected, a combination of treatment modes, such as radiotherapy and interventional therapy, can be adopted. With the current medical level, most patients can achieve safe, economical and effective treatment and improve their quality of life. Currently, certain targeted therapeutic drugs have started to be used for gastric cancer, which also bring benefits to patients and can significantly improve their prognosis and prolong their survival.
Healthy diet to keep away from stomach cancer
Globally, there are more than 1 million new cases of gastric cancer and about 800,000 deaths each year, and China is one of the countries with the highest incidence and mortality rate of gastric cancer, with the incidence and mortality rate more than twice the world average.
The occurrence of gastric cancer is closely related to dietary habits and genetic factors.
We can prevent the occurrence of stomach cancer from the following aspects.
1. Develop good dietary habits: eat regularly and quantitatively, eat more fresh vegetables and fruits, avoid long-term consumption of salted and smoked foods, and avoid eating too fast and too hot food.
2.Limit the intake of alcohol and tobacco: smoke contains many carcinogenic or carcinogenic substances, which is one of the causes of esophageal cancer and stomach cancer. Although alcohol itself is not a carcinogenic substance, strong alcohol will stimulate gastric mucosa, damage mucosal tissue and promote the absorption of carcinogenic substances.
3.Actively treat precancerous lesions: Precancerous lesions refer to benign diseases with cancer tendency, such as chronic atrophic gastritis, chronic gastric ulcer, gastric polyp, partial gastric resection, giant gastric mucosal hypertrophy, warty gastritis and so on. People suffering from such diseases must often go to hospitals for examination and treatment to eliminate precancerous lesions and prevent the occurrence of gastric cancer.
4. Be alert to family history of cancer: A large number of clinical records and research results have proved that the incidence rate of gastric cancer is significantly higher for people with genetic family history of cancer than the general population.
The efficacy and prognosis of gastric cancer patients are closely related to the early stage of the disease and the methods and means of diagnosis and treatment, and the 5-year survival rate of gastric cancer can reach 90% if detected early. Therefore, early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment of gastric cancer are very important. People with high risk of gastric cancer should be observed regularly and gastroscopy should be reviewed when necessary. High-risk groups include: those who have a history of chronic gastritis and recent indigestion over 40 years old; those who have undergone gastrointestinal anastomosis for more than 10 years; those who suffer from atrophic gastritis, intestinal epithelial hyperplasia, heterogeneous hyperplasia of gastric mucosa, gastric polyp, pernicious anemia; those who have long-term alcoholism, smoking, high-salt diet, smoked food and less fresh vegetables; those who are mentally stimulated and depressed for a long time; those who have family history of gastric cancer, etc.
Treatment of gastric cancer.
1.Surgery is preferred for early gastric cancer patients, and most patients need to be given adjuvant radiotherapy after radical surgery.
2. For patients in the middle and late stages, if surgery is not possible, they can adopt comprehensive treatment mode, such as radiotherapy and interventional therapy; at present, targeted tumor therapy also brings good news to gastric cancer patients, which can significantly improve patients’ prognosis and prolong their survival.