How to treat stomach cancer

  Gastric cancer has a high incidence rate in China, ranking first among gastrointestinal tumors, with more men than women.  Early diagnosis and early surgery are the most effective methods to treat gastric cancer. The choice of gastric cancer treatment depends on the stage of the disease, patient’s condition and willingness. At present, surgery is still the main means to treat gastric cancer. Some early gastric cancers can achieve the same effect of radical surgery through endoscopic treatment, while for some patients with late preoperative staging, chemotherapy or radiotherapy or combined with targeted therapy are needed, and the chance of surgery can be evaluated after treatment.  1.Endoscopic treatment: The radicality of endoscopic early gastric cancer depends on two elements: complete local excision and no possibility of lymph node metastasis. The treatment includes endoscopic mucosal resection and endoscopic submucosal dissection. Compared with conventional radical surgery, the 5-year survival rate of endoscopic treatment is not significantly different and is above 90%, which has now become one of the standard treatment modalities for early gastric cancer. And for patients with poor general condition and short expected survival time, endoscopic palliative treatment is also feasible.  2.Surgical treatment: According to the treatment purpose, gastric cancer surgery can be divided into radical surgery, palliative surgery and tumor reduction surgery. Radical surgery is the main treatment for progressive gastric cancer, while for advanced tumors with obstruction and bleeding, palliative surgery can be adopted, while for patients with peritoneal metastasis, chemotherapy combined with tumor reduction surgery and peritoneal perfusion chemotherapy may have certain effect.  Chemotherapy. According to different stages of the disease, chemotherapy plays different roles, mainly including preoperative chemotherapy, intraoperative chemotherapy, postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy and palliative chemotherapy.  Radiotherapy. Studies have shown that preoperative radiotherapy has some value in controlling the local recurrence rate of gastroesophageal union cancer and complete surgical resection, and fluorouracil-based drugs are usually used for chemotherapy along with radiotherapy to enhance the efficacy.