Early signs of stomach cancer

The article was professionally consulted by doctors of Internal Oncology Department - Radiation Oncology Center - Vinmec Times City International Hospital.

Stomach cancer has similar manifestations to common stomach diseases, making it easy for patients to be confused and only detected when the disease has progressed to the final stage. Knowing the early signs of stomach cancer helps you diagnose the disease in time, thereby building an effective treatment plan.

Stomach cancer develops through 5 stages:
Stage 0 is also called early stage (early stage). At this stage, new cancer cells are located in the lining of the stomach. Stage 1: Cancer cells have penetrated into the second layer of the stomach, but there are still no obvious symptoms and have not spread to other organs. Stage 2: When moving to stage 2, the cancer cells have moved through the mucosa and started to appear some more obvious symptoms: abdominal pain, nausea... Stage 3: The Cancer cells have begun to spread to other organs in the body. Stage 4: G late stage of stomach cancer. At this point, cancer cells have spread throughout the body and there is almost no chance for a cure. Early gastric cancer (or early stage) is the period when new cancer cells are still in the submucosa. Usually, the tumor size in this stage is usually very small, only a few mm to 7cm, so it does not affect the digestive activity of the stomach. Therefore, if you want to detect stomach cancer at an early stage, it is necessary to implement cancer screening programs.

In the early stages of stomach cancer, symptoms are not obvious and are mostly detected when cancer cells have spread to other parts of the body. In case the patient has a history of stomach-related diseases, it is necessary to carefully examine the pathology periodically, to avoid a bad situation that turns into cancer.

However, patients need to pay attention to get checked out as soon as they detect some of the following signs of stomach cancer:
Weight loss: This is one of the basic symptoms of stomach cancer. Weight loss occurs rapidly when the disease enters an advanced stage, even losing up to 15% of body weight in just 3 months. Abdominal pain: Starts with intermittent pain, however, the abdominal pain will become worse when the patient enters the later stages of stomach cancer, even taking medicine is not relieved. Loss of appetite: A common symptom in stomach cancer patients, accompanied by difficulty swallowing, the feeling that food is always blocked in the throat. Stomach bloating after eating: Patients often have a feeling of fullness, discomfort and nausea after eating. Vomiting blood : When there is frequent vomiting of blood, we also need to consider the possibility of stomach cancer. Black stools: Most of these symptoms will appear in people with stomach ulcers as a sign that the disease may have turned into cancer. Basically, the symptoms of stomach cancer are similar to other stomach diseases, so patients often have subjective psychology, only going to the doctor when the disease is serious.

For early detection of gastric cancer, the best way is Screening for Esophageal - Stomach Cancer
Screening is done for patients with no clinical symptoms. In some developed countries such as Japan, where stomach cancer is a common disease, extensive screening can help detect gastric cancer early.
The doctor will give you some tests to check, such as: Gastroscopy, biopsy of suspected lesions, tests for tumor markers...
Diagnosing stomach cancer Some tests Used in the diagnosis and staging of gastric cancer. help make informed treatment decisions.
Gastrointestinal endoscopy: allows direct viewing of the area of ​​interest. Your doctor will take a tissue sample (biopsy) to confirm the diagnosis. Endoscopy is important for detecting early-stage cancers that develop from the upper or lower lining of the digestive tract.
Biopsy Doctors do biopsies during an upper endoscopy by taking a small sample of tissue from an unusual-looking area of ​​the stomach. Then another doctor looks at that tissue under a microscope. Once doctors have confirmed the diagnosis, further tests are done to diagnose stage

At Vinmec, gastric cancer screening is done through gastric endoscopy with NBI (Narrow Banding Imaging - endoscope with narrow light frequency band) for clearer mucosal pathological analysis results than with conventional endoscopy.

Besides, with the system of Laboratory Department - Vinmec International General Hospital is a synchronous testing center with a full range of fields: Biochemistry, Hematology - Blood Transfusion, Microbiology - Parasitology and Anatomy diseases and 3 majors: Biochemistry, Hematology - Blood Transfusion, Microbiology - Parasitology all achieved ISO 15189:2012 certificates. Vinmec Institute of Stem Cell and Gene Technology also screened 15 common cancers in Men and 17 common cancers in Women with only one gene test.
After detecting early gastric cancer, the outcome of treatment depends on many factors, of which early diagnosis is the most important. If diagnosed early when the lesion has not invaded through the muscular layer of the stomach wall, the 5-year survival time after surgery is from 80-90%, if diagnosed late when the lesion has passed through the muscle layer and spread. serosa, the survival time after surgery over 5 years is only about 10-15%.
In addition to the treatment prescribed by the doctor, we need to build a healthy lifestyle, activities, and a scientific diet to limit the progression of stomach cancer.

If you have a need for consultation and examination at Vinmec Hospitals under the national health system, please book an appointment on the website for service.

In April & May 2021, when there is a need for gastric cancer examination and treatment at Vinmec Times City International Hospital, customers will enjoy double incentives:
- Free specialist examination and 50% discount on Esophageal and Stomach Cancer Screening Package
- 50% off cost for customers who have indications for post-examination treatment. The program is limited to the corresponding technique of each hospital and to customers who perform this treatment technique for the first time at Vinmec.