The word cancer is always scary, and even if medicine has made great strides today, prevention is the most effective weapon. Can stomach cancer be recognized?
All types of cancer they scareand although many of them can be cured today, the prevention it is always the most effective weapon in our possession. Regular visits and examinations significantly remove the risk of death since if caught in time, many tumors are easily removed with a very high probability of complete recovery.
But there are symptoms which ones should we be careful of? Not all types of cancer show obvious signs, sometimes they remain silent for years, until suddenly health deteriorates. Others have one particular symptomatology and still others, such as the one in the stomach, present different symptoms in common with other pathologies and it is for this reason that it is essential to investigate further if any arise. Let’s see what they are.
Symptoms not to be confused
As said the stomach tumorwhich is represented by an abnormal growth of malignant cells in the gastric mucosa, can initially be confused with other less serious pathologies because it presents very similar symptoms. For example the gastritis o the ulcer, which cause difficulty in digestion, a sense of burning and fullness, swelling.
When should we worry? When these symptoms, which do not disappear if treated with drugs for the aforementioned diseases, others join such as nausea and vomiting with traces of blood, blood in the stoolsdifficulty swallowing and an unexplained weight lossa real alarm bell for many types of cancer.
It generally affects after the age of 65, and there are risk factors which, as Dr. Giuseppe Pappalardo states on TopDoctors, include: “Factors genetics: genetic instability; blood group A; increased risk in family members; Factors environmental: diet with low intake of antioxidants (e.g. vitamin C); spicy, salty and smoked foods; Risk conditions: pernicious anemia; Helicobacter Pylori infection; stomach that has already undergone a resection”.
Diagnosis and treatment
The only way to diagnose stomach cancer is through the gastroscopy, a special camera is introduced into the intestine and manages to identify the tumor site accurately allowing it to be removed. Invasive and annoying exam, certainly, but essential and often life-saving. This is followed by other specific tests.
Treatment depends on the type of cancer, its development, and other factors that doctors consider in agreement. Both a single part of the stomach and the entire organ can be removed, and the patient can then be subjected to chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Unfortunately, as he recalls Airc, the Cancer Research Foundation: “If the tumor is limited to the submucosa of the stomach and there are no metastases, the 5-year survival is 90 percent. For advanced gastric cancer, 5-year survival goes down about 25 percent.”