Common symptoms of gastric cancer The early symptoms of gastric cancer are mostly atypical and often misdiagnosed as other benign diseases such as gastritis and gastric ulcer, and only after the symptoms cannot be relieved by treatment is it diagnosed as gastric cancer, which is usually in the progressive stage at this time, mostly accompanied by metastasis of surrounding lymph nodes or intra-abdominal organs, and some of them have ascites. The effect of treatment at this time is definitely worse. According to the analysis of clinical data of 1636 cases of gastric cancer in Beijing, the main symptom is epigastric pain or discomfort accounting for 84%, followed by wasting accounting for 73.8% and loss of appetite accounting for 58.5%. In another 400 cases of early gastric cancer, the symptoms of epigastric discomfort or pain accounted for 83.8%, loss of appetite accounted for 39.5%, epigastric distension accounted for 37.8%, and wasting accounted for 35.8%. How can we improve the early diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer? We advocate gastroscopic screening in areas with high incidence, but in view of China’s national conditions, gastroscopic screening is relatively difficult. It is recommended that those with stomach discomfort who do not have obvious effect after treatment, or those with frequent recurrence should have timely barium fluoroscopy of upper gastrointestinal tract, and those who have doubts should have gastroscopy and CT examination of upper abdomen, and if necessary, intensive CT examination. Lu Shoutang, Department of Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences The following is a brief introduction of common clinical symptoms of gastric cancer for your reference and timely diagnosis. Early treatment can be done. Common symptoms of gastric cancer: pain in stomach area, often biting, not obviously related to eating, or similar to peptic ulcer pain, which can be relieved after eating. Feeling of fullness and heaviness in the upper abdomen, anorexia, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, emaciation, anemia, edema, fever, etc. Cardia cancer mainly manifests as discomfort under the subxiphoid process, pain or pain behind the sternum, with a feeling of obstruction in eating or difficulty in swallowing. Gastric fundus and subcardia cancer often have no obvious symptoms until the tumor is huge and necrotic ulceration causes bleeding in upper gastrointestinal tract, or the tumor infiltration extends to the cardia and causes difficulty in swallowing; gastric body cancer is more common in distended type, and the pain and discomfort appear later; ulcerated type cancer is most common on the side of gastric sinus, so the symptoms of epigastric pain appear earlier, and when the tumor extends to the pylorus, it can cause When the tumor extends to the pylorus, it can cause symptoms of pyloric obstruction such as nausea and vomiting. If the cancer spreads, it may cause ascites, hepatomegaly, jaundice and metastasis of lung, brain, heart, prostate, ovary, bone marrow, etc. and the corresponding symptoms may appear. Stomach cancer clinical symptoms (1) Stomach pain: It is the most common symptom of stomach cancer, which appears early. At the beginning, it only feels discomfort in the upper abdomen, or a feeling of bloating or heaviness, or a vague pain in the heart fossa, and the symptoms can be temporarily relieved if treated as gastritis or ulcer disease. It is only when stomach cancer develops further, pain attacks are frequent and aggravated, and even black stool and vomiting occur that attention is drawn to it, which is often the middle or late stage of stomach cancer and the treatment effect is poor. Therefore, we should pay attention to this common and non-specific symptom of “stomach pain”. Especially when the symptoms are relieved by treatment and then occur again within a short period of time. Do not wait for the appearance of the typical symptoms of “pain without rhythm” and “not relieved by eating”. Consider further examination in time and do not lose the best time for treatment. If the pain continues to worsen and radiates to the lower back, it is an advanced symptom of stomach cancer invading the pancreas. (2) Loss of appetite, emaciation and weakness: this symptom may appear in the early stage and may not be accompanied by the symptoms of gastric pain. When this symptom appears together with stomach pain, it should be paid special attention. Many patients experience fullness and belching after meals and automatically restrict their diet and gradually lose weight. (3) Malignant, vomiting: This symptom is often caused by obstruction or gastric dysfunction caused by tumor. Cardia cancer can cause unpleasant eating and even difficulty in swallowing. Gastric sinus cancer can cause pyloric obstruction and vomiting, and the vomit has putrid odor or overnight lodged food. Hemorrhage and black stool: When there is small amount of bleeding, only fecal occult blood (occult blood) is positive, but when there is larger amount of bleeding, there can be vomiting blood and black stool. When black stools are found in the elderly, it is important to be alert to the possibility of stomach cancer.