Nutrition is an important part of your treatment for stomach cancer. You need
the right amount of calories, protein, vitamins, and minerals to maintain your
strength and to heal.
However, when you have stomach cancer, it may be difficult to eat. You may be
uncomfortable or tired, and you may not feel like eating. You also may have
nausea, vomiting, constipation, or diarrhea from cancer treatment or pain
medicine.
Tell your health care team if you're losing weight or having any problems
digesting your food. A dietitian can help you choose the foods and nutrition
products that will meet your needs. Some people with stomach cancer are helped
by receiving nutrition by IV (intravenous). A temporary feeding tube is rarely
needed.
Nutrition after stomach surgery
A registered dietitian can help you plan a
diet that will meet your nutrition needs. A plan that describes the type and
amount of food to eat after surgery can help you prevent weight loss and
discomfort with eating.
After stomach surgery, you may need to take daily supplements of vitamins and
minerals, such as vitamin D, calcium, and iron. You may also need vitamin B12
shots.
Some people have problems eating and drinking after stomach surgery. Liquids
may pass into the small intestine too fast, which causes dumping syndrome. The
symptoms are cramps, nausea, bloating, diarrhea, and dizziness. To prevent these
symptoms, it may help to make the following changes:
Plan to have smaller, more frequent meals (some doctors suggest 6 meals per
day)
Drink liquids before or after meals
Cut down on very sweet foods and drinks
(such as cookies, candy, soda, and juices)
Ask your health care team if they can
suggest medicine to control the symptoms
You may want to ask a dietitian these
questions about nutrition:
What foods are best soon after surgery?
How can I avoid dumping syndrome?
Are
there foods or drinks that I should avoid?
Supportive care
Stomach cancer and its treatment can lead to other health problems. You can
have supportive care before, during, and after cancer treatment.
Supportive care is treatment to control pain and other symptoms, to relieve
the side effects of therapy, and to help you cope with the feelings that a
diagnosis of cancer can bring. You may receive supportive care to prevent or
control these problems and to improve your comfort and quality of life during
treatment.
You can get information about supportive care on NCI's Web site at
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/coping and from NCI's Cancer Information
Service at 1-800-4-CANCER or LiveHelp (http://www.cancer.gov/help).
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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