Stomach Cancer
What is stomach cancer?
The body is made up of many types of cells.
Normally, cells grow, divide and die. Sometimes, cells
mutate (change) and begin to grow and divide more quickly than normal
cells. Rather than dying,
these abnormal cells clump together to form tumors. If these tumors are
cancerous (also called
"malignant"), they can invade and kill your body's healthy tissues. From
these tumors, cancer cells
can metastasize (spread) and form new tumors in other parts of the body.
By contrast,
noncancerous tumors (also called "benign") do not spread to other parts of
the body. Stomach
cancer (also called “gastric cancer”) is the growth of cancer cells in the
lining and wall of the
stomach. Stomach cancer (also called gastric cancer) can occur in any part
of the stomach, and
may spread to nearby areas like the esophagus or small intestine. Cancer
on the stomach's walls
can spread to nearby lymph nodes and to the liver, pancreas and colon.
While stomach cancer can
effect both men and women, men are twice as likely to get stomach cancer
than women; the
most vulnerable group is men over 50 years old.
What are
the symptoms of stomach cancer? Symptoms
usually only develop once the disease has spread beyond the stomach. The
sooner the
cancer is detected, the better the survival chances. Symptoms of stomach
cancer include:
Loss of appetite.
Unexplained weight loss.
Pain when eating, as the tumour grows through the stomach wall.
Persistent indigestion.
Vomiting, including vomiting blood, due to obstruction of the oesophagus
(passage between the
mouth and stomach) by the tumour.
Chronic fatigue.
Feeling full after eating very little.
Blood in the stool.
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