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.
Abdominal pain is pain in the belly and can be acute or chronic. Causes include inflammation, distention of an organ, and loss of the blood supply to an organ. Abdominal pain can reflect a major problem with one of the organs in the abdomen such as the appendix, gallbladder, large and small intestine, pancreas, liver, colon, duodenum, and spleen.
Anemia is the condition of having less than the normal number of red blood cells or less than the normal quantity of hemoglobin in the blood. The oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood is, therefore, decreased.
Lymph nodes help the body's immune system fight infections. Causes of swollen lymph nodes (glands) may include infection (viral, bacterial, fungal, parasites). Symptoms of swollen lymph nodes vary greatly. They can sometimes be tender, painful or disfiguring. The treatment of swollen lymph nodes depends upon the cause.
Nausea is an uneasiness of the stomach that often precedes vomiting. Nausea and vomiting are not diseases, but they are symptoms of many conditions. The causes of vomiting differ according to age, and treatment depends upon the cause of nausea and vomiting.
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a bacterium that causes chronic inflammation (gastritis) of the inner lining of the stomach in humans. This bacteria also is the most common cause of ulcers worldwide.
A peptic ulcer is an ulcer in the lining of the stomach, duodenum, or esophagus. Ulcer formation is related to Helicobacter pylori bacteria in the stomach, use of anti-inflammatory medications, and cigarette smoking.
Ascites, the accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity is most commonly caused by cirrhosis of the liver. Some of the other causes of ascites include portal hypertension, congestive heart failure, blood clots, and pancreatitis. The most common symptoms include increased abdominal girth and size, abdominal bloating, and abdominal pain. Treatment depends on the cause of ascites.
Cancer is a disease caused by an abnormal growth of cells, also called malignancy. It is a group of 100 different diseases, and is not contagious. Cancer can be treated through chemotherapy, a treatment of drugs that destroy cancer cells.
Pernicious anemia is a blood disorder in which the body does not make enough red blood cells due to a lack of vitamin B12 in the blood. Pernicious anemia can develop from a lack of a protein that helps the body absorb vitamin B12, not getting enough B12 in the diet, and certain intestinal conditions that interfere with the absorption of vitamin B12 such as Crohn's disease, celiac sprue, or ulcerative colitis. There is no cure for pernicious anemia, thus treatment is life-long.
Gastritis is an inflammation of the stomach lining. Causes of gastritis include drinking too much alcohol, medications such as NSAIDs, ibuprofen, aspirin, H. pylori infection, severe infections, burns, anemia, and autoimmune disorders. Gastritis is diagnosed with endoscopy, blood tests, or stool tests. Treatment depends upon the cause of gastritis.
Smoking is an addiction. More than 430,000 deaths occur each year in the U.S. from smoking related illnesses. Secondhand smoke or "passive smoke" also harm family members, coworkers, and others around smokers. There are a number of techniques available to assist people who want to quit smoking.
Though it's difficult to say why some people develop cancer while others don't, research shows that certain risk factors increase a person's odds of developing cancer. These risk factors include growing older, family history of cancer, diet, alcohol and tobacco use, and exposure to sunlight, ionizing radiation, certain chemicals, and some viruses and bacteria.
Digestion is the complex process of turning food you eat into the energy you need to survive. The digestive process also involves creating waste to be eliminated, and is made of a series of muscles that coordinate the movement of food.
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