What is Stomach Cancer?
Stomach cancer is one of the uncommon types of cancer. Cancer refers to cells that grow out-of-control and invade other tissues.
This disease is characterized by a growth of cancerous cells within the lining of the stomach. This disease is also called gastric cancer, and this type of cancer is difficult to diagnose because most people typically don’t show symptoms in the earlier stages of this disease.
Since it usually doesn’t cause any early symptoms, it often goes undiagnosed until after it has spread to other parts of the body. This makes it more difficult to treat.
What are the causes of Stomach cancer?
Stomach cancer is caused when normally healthy cells within the upper digestive system become cancerous and grow out of control, forming a tumor. This process happens gradually over a long period of time and eventually develops to full blown cancer.
Your personal medical history especially if you have a family history of stomach cancer can impact your risk of developing this disease and some habits and lifestyle factors can also play a role in causing it.
This habits and lifestyle factors includes:
- alcohol abuse
- consuming lots of salty, smoked or processed foods
- lack of exercise
- poor cooking and storage of food
- lack of fruit and vegetable in diet
- smoking etc
What are the symptoms of Stomach cancer?
Unfortunately, there are no early signs or symptoms of this disease and this sadly means that until the cancer has reached an advanced stage,it is very difficult to know that something is wrong .
Some of the symptoms includes:
- persistent nausea and vomiting
- stomach pain, which may be worse after meals
- severe indigestion
- bloody stools
- loss of appetite
- frequently bloating
- sudden weight loss
How to treat Stomach cancer?
When you discover signs and symptoms that may suggest this disease, make an appointment with your doctor. Your doctor will likely investigate more common causes of these signs and symptoms first.
Stomach cancer can be treated like any other type of cancer and this includes by:
- surgery
- chemotherapy
- radiation therapy
- immunotherapy, such as vaccines and medication
Your age and overall health can also play a role in the treatment .Your treatment also depends on the origin and state of of the cancer.
When left untreated, will eventually spread to other sensitive organs in the body.
Some of these sensitive organs include:
- liver
- bones
- lymph nodes
- lungs
At this juncture, I hope you have gotten alot about stomach cancer, kindly share it with friends.
Related
