Stomach Cancer - Describe Your Experience
Please describe your experience with stomach cancer.
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Staging
If the biopsy shows that you have stomach cancer, your doctor needs to learn the stage (extent) of the disease to help you choose the best treatment.
Staging is a careful attempt to find out the following:
- How deeply the tumor invades the wall of the stomach
- Whether the stomach tumor has invaded nearby tissues
- Whether the cancer has spread and, if so, to what parts of the body.
When stomach cancer spreads, cancer cells may be found in nearby lymph nodes, the liver, the pancreas, esophagus, intestine, or other organs. Your doctor may order blood tests and other tests to check these areas:
- Chest x-ray: An x-ray of your chest can show whether cancer has spread to the lungs.
- CT scan: An x-ray machine linked to a computer takes a series of detailed pictures of your organs. You may receive an injection of dye. The dye makes abnormal areas easier to see. Tumors in your liver, pancreas, or elsewhere in the body can show up on a CT scan.
- Endoscopic ultrasound: Your doctor passes a thin, lighted tube (endoscope) down your throat. A probe at the end of the tube sends out sound waves that you cannot hear. The waves bounce off tissues in your stomach and other organs. A computer creates a picture from the echoes. The picture can show how deeply the cancer has invaded the wall of the stomach. Your doctor may use a needle to take tissue samples of lymph nodes.
- Laparoscopy: A surgeon makes small incisions (cuts) in your abdomen. The surgeon inserts a thin, lighted tube (laparoscope) into the abdomen. The surgeon may remove lymph nodes or take tissue samples for biopsy.
Sometimes staging is not complete until after surgery to remove the tumor and nearby lymph nodes.
When stomach cancer spreads from its original place to another part of the body, the new tumor has the same kind of abnormal cells and the same name as the primary (original) tumor. For example, if stomach cancer spreads to the liver, the cancer cells in the liver are actually stomach cancer cells. The disease is metastatic stomach cancer, not liver cancer. For that reason, it is treated as stomach cancer, not liver cancer. Doctors call the new tumor "distant" or metastatic disease.
These are the stages of stomach cancer:
- Stage 0: The tumor is found only in the inner layer of the stomach. Stage 0 is also called carcinoma in situ.
- Stage I is one of the following:
- The tumor has invaded only the submucosa. Cancer cells may be found in up to 6 lymph nodes.
- Or, the tumor has invaded the muscle layer or subserosa. Cancer cells have not spread to lymph nodes or other organs.
- Stage II is one of the following:
- The tumor has invaded only the submucosa. Cancer cells have spread to 7 to 15 lymph nodes.
- Or, the tumor has invaded the muscle layer or subserosa. Cancer cells have spread to 1 to 6 lymph nodes.
- Or, the tumor has penetrated the outer layer of the stomach. Cancer cells have not spread to lymph nodes or other organs.
- Stage III is one of the following:
- The tumor has invaded the muscle layer or subserosa. Cancer cells have spread to 7 to 15 lymph nodes.
- Or, the tumor has penetrated the outer layer. Cancer cells have spread to 1 to 15 lymph nodes.
- Or, the tumor has invaded nearby organs, such as the liver, colon, or spleen. Cancer cells have not spread to lymph nodes or to distant organs.
- Stage IV is one of the following:
- Cancer cells have spread to more than 15 lymph nodes.
- Or, the tumor has invaded nearby organs and at least 1 lymph node.
- Or, cancer cells have spread to distant organs.
See what others are saying
I had surgery for stomach cancer in September and 1/2 of my stomach was removed. Also, after surgery I had 3 blood clots pass through my heart and also had MERSA. It was all very painful and scary; but, even though my oncologist jokes that they tried to kill me 3 times, he shakes his head and can only say I caught it in time while I was still healthy. I am now on Gleevic which is supposed to help with stomach tumors and Warfarin for my thick blood. I have had no bad affects from either. I originally went to the doctor because I was very tired and my blood tests showed that my red blood cells were disappearing fast. They did the gastro tests showing an ulcer and another mass. Even a scan could not identify what it was, therefore, the surgery. I can only believe that God has a reason for keeping me here. Today, at 67 I am retired but still work 12 hours a week at the college I am affiliated with and only once in a while feel tired. The doctor is amazed because I am eating just about everything.
Prior to May, my father had lost weight, felt full after eating very little and began vomiting. Years before these episodes, he was from the old school of "when you have a stomach ache, mix come baking soda w/ water." We called it his cocktail and he would feel better. God only knows how long he had stomach cancer, but was officially diagnosed in May the tumor was huge and then spread to his esophagus, bones and lungs. My daddy passed away. He was a strong man and an athlete all his life and this happened so fast and he was gone even faster. All I can say is there were really no symptoms, except for a belly ache once in awhile after eating, (we've all had that) but the big things happened when it was all to late to cure. Please, everyone, get check-ups, to for an endoscopy every few years and bloodwork. He lasted 10 months from diagnosis and the ending was not nice, I'm thankful my family was with him as he totally wasted away. He never had pain, but just lost so much weight from not eating. I wish there was more testing for this horrible form of cancer.
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