Stomach cancer is the third most prevalent malignant tumor in China, and there are more than 400,000 new stomach cancer patients in China every year. Only by fully understanding tumor can we better prevent and overcome tumor, however, we find in our daily work that the public knows little about gastric cancer and there are even many misconceptions about it. Then it is necessary to popularize the knowledge about stomach cancer.
1.What is gastric cancer?
It is the most common malignant tumor of stomach, but there is not only one kind of malignant tumor of stomach, other malignant tumors of stomach include: gastric sarcoma, gastric lymphoma and mesenchymal tumor. Often, family members of patients say, “Great, it is good that it is not stomach cancer”, but we should remember that just because the doctor says it is not stomach cancer does not mean it is not malignant tumor.
2.Why do you have stomach cancer?
There are various factors for the development of stomach cancer, including smoking, poor dietary habits, chronic atrophic gastritis, H. pylori, family history of gastric cancer or esophageal cancer, long-term poor psychological status, special occupational risk, long-term exposure to harmful carcinogenic substances, geographical factors, geological water sources containing carcinogens, etc.
3.Pre-cancerous disease and precancerous lesion?
Pre-cancerous diseases refer to benign gastric diseases related to gastric cancer: including chronic atrophic gastritis, gastric polyps, residual gastritis, etc. Pre-cancerous gastric lesions are a histological concept that refers to histopathological changes that are more likely to become cancerous than normal tissues or other pathological changes. In a broad sense, it includes many pathological changes such as heterogeneous hyperplasia, atrophy, intestinal epithelial metaplasia and even inflammation of gastric mucosa.
4.Is there any obvious sign of gastric cancer?
There is no obvious specific symptom in early stage of gastric cancer, and most patients have no different symptoms from those of common gastritis. There are abdominal distension and pain, loss of appetite and weight loss, eating obstruction and vomiting, vomiting blood, black stool, anemia, epigastric pain, lymph node enlargement, ascites, pelvic floor implantation, obstruction, jaundice, anemic appearance, weight loss, cachexia, and tumor associated syndrome of gastric cancer, which are often progressive gastric cancer. Therefore, regular checkups and even census can be conducted for early detection and treatment.
5.What should I do if I have stomach cancer?
Many patients are at a loss of what to do when they have stomach cancer, how to treat it? How to operate? Chemotherapy? Or take Chinese medicine? They are at a loss. So what should be done after having stomach cancer? If you have gastric cancer, you should not delay the treatment time by believing in prescriptions, but must receive standardized treatment, i.e. comprehensive treatment mainly based on surgery. Unless the tumor itself is too advanced to be operated or the patient’s general condition is too poor to tolerate surgery, other than that, surgery is the first choice, and only surgery has the possibility of radical cure, while other treatments are palliative. In short, surgery should be the first choice unless the tumor is inoperable. After surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy should be given according to the pathological stage and patient’s condition.
6.Can minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery for gastric cancer be clean?
Several clinical trials have confirmed that laparoscopic surgery for early gastric cancer can achieve the same curative effect as traditional open surgery, and has the advantages of less trauma and faster recovery. Clinical trials of laparoscopic radical treatment for progressive gastric cancer are also in progress.
7.Can all gastric cancer patients receive targeted therapy?
Targeted therapy is to design the corresponding therapeutic drug at the cellular molecular level against a defined target, which can be a protein molecule or a gene fragment inside the tumor cell. Therefore, molecular targeted therapy is also called “biological missile”. Currently, the target of targeted therapy for gastric cancer is Her-2, and only Her-2 positive is the indication for targeted therapy, not all gastric cancer patients are suitable for targeted therapy.
8.How long can the patient live?
How long a patient can live after having gastric cancer is one of the main concerns of family members. Gastric cancer can be divided into early gastric cancer and progressive gastric cancer. Early stage gastric cancer has a good prognosis with a 5-year survival rate of over 90%, while progressive gastric cancer is reported differently, generally around 55%. This is based on the statistics of large sample size, and it is often difficult to predict the survival time precisely for each patient, because the degree of disease, physical condition, whether there are other comorbidities, etc. are different for each patient, so the survival time will also be different.
9.What do gastric cancer patients eat after surgery? How much to eat? How to eat?
In the early stage after gastric cancer surgery, in order to adapt to the status quo of digestive tract reconstruction, diet should be gradually transitioned from thin to thick, from small to large amount, and should be light and easy to digest, high energy and high protein food. It is also important to eat more foods rich in vitamins and trace elements. The main food and side dishes should be chosen nutritious, easy to digest food, avoid eating raw. The amount of food should also be a small number of times, the simplest principle of their own comfort as degree. Try not to eat sticky food such as glutinous rice. Baked, baked, smoked and fried foods should not be eaten as much as possible. Don’t eat moldy, expired and high-salt food.
10. How to prevent stomach cancer?
Pay attention to reasonable nutrition in life, diversify food as much as possible, eat more high protein, multivitamin, low animal fat, easy to digest food and fresh fruits and vegetables, do not eat old and stale or irritating things, and eat less fumigated, baked, pickled, fried and over-salted food. Avoid long-term consumption of high salt, smoked products, salt-pickled food people. Take appropriate physical exercise and keep a cheerful mood. There is no clear measure to absolutely prevent the occurrence of gastric cancer, so it is especially important to have frequent medical checkups to prevent the disease before it happens.