Dr Manish Singhal - The best Cancer Specialist in Delhi
Stomach Cancer – Kill it before it grab your hunger and life too
Stomach cancer – Kill it before it grab your hunger and life too
Just like any other cancer, stomach cancer can turn a nightmare into reality. Although it is curable but the darker side is, it occurs gradually and usually doesn’t show any unusual or noticeable symptoms.
As we say always, early detection and information are the key weapons to fight cancer, let’s have a crisp and brief introduction with stomach cancer.
What is stomach cancer?
When cancerous cells forms in the inner lining of the stomach, it causes stomach cancer. These cancerous cells grow into a malignant tumor. Another name for stomach cancer is gastric cancer.
What Are The Symptoms of Stomach cancer?
As early detection is the best treatment to cure cancer, here are some alarming symptoms for stomach cancer.
| Indigestion |
| Slight nausea |
| Feeling bloated after having your meals |
| Heartburn |
| Loss of appetite |
It’s important to mention here that just having heartburn or indigestion after a meal doesn’t mean that you have a stomach cancer. But yes! if any of these symptoms are occurring from a long period then you really need to discuss these symptoms from your doctor.
Causes of stomach cancer?
Although, there are no exact reasons of stomach cancer, but there are certain things which can definitely raise the risk of stomach cancer such as -
| Obesity |
| Type-A blood |
| Smoking |
| Exposure to asbestos (a group of minerals with thin microscopic fibers) |
| Epstein-Barr virus infection |
| Stomach surgery for an ulcer |
| A diet high in smoked, salty or pickled foods. |
| Certain genes |
Symptoms in later stages
Stomach cancer is among those cancers which grows very slowly and doesn’t show any noticeable symptoms easily. But in later stages, it will definitely show some extreme symptoms like –
- Blood in your stool
- Vomiting
- Stomach pain
- Yellowish eyes or skin
- Weight loss for no reason
- Constipation or diarrhoea
- Heartburn
- Swelling in stomach
- Trouble in swallowing food
How to prevent stomach cancer?
Treatments
Type of treatment is decided depending on an individual case. Such as –
Surgery
In this treatment, the doctor might remove a part of cancer or nearby tissues that have cells. It helps to get rid of the tumor and prevents cancer from spreading other parts of the body.
Although, sometimes some tumors prevent food from moving in and moving out from the stomach. In such cases, the doctor may put a stent , which is a device that keep the pathways open.
Radiation
An X-ray or any beam radiation machine can be used to shrink the cancerous tumor and kill the cancerous cells.
Chemotherapy
Drugs are used to kill the cancer cells or prevent them from growing. These drugs can be taken as pills or through an IV (Intravenous) in a clinic in which medicines are given by injecting drugs in a vein.
Chemoradiation
It is a mix of chemotherapy and radiation which is used to shrink the tumor before surgery.
Small steps bring big changes. Keeping yourself informed and healthy can prove miraculously helpful in bringing your life on a right track of survival!
