Dull epigastric pain, 1 of 5 signs of stomach cancer to be aware of
Stomach cancer is a malignant disease originating from the epithelial cells of the stomach and can occur in any location of the stomach. Many people are very worried about stomach cancer when they experience dull epigastric pain.
However, this is only one of the 5 symptoms of stomach cancer. The following article helps readers better understand this disease.
Risk factors for developing stomach cancer
According to Globocan 2020, in Vietnam, stomach cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death, with about 17,000 new cases and about 14,000 deaths each year.
There are many factors that lead to the risk of stomach cancer, including:
- Smoking: This is considered a significant risk factor. Not only for direct smokers, but also for those exposed to cigarette smoke, the risk of disease is increased.
- Diet: A diet high in salt, fried foods, grilled foods, pickled foods... (salted meat, smoked meat...) often increases the risk of disease.
- Due to Helicopylori bacteria: In 1994, WHO pointed out that Helicopylori is an important risk factor in stomach cancer. People infected with Helicopylori have a 3-6 times higher risk of getting the disease than uninfected people, especially those with chronic Helicopylori infection.
- Due to polyps: Patients with gastric glandular polyps, precancerous lesions such as: thick mucosal atrophy, intestinal metaplasia, gastric dysplasia are also factors that increase the risk of the disease.
- Genetic: Stomach cancer is associated with a number of genetic syndromes such as: Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, FAP, Juvenile syndrome.
Signs of stomach cancer
The signs of stomach cancer depend on the stage of detection. In the early stages, stomach cancer has almost no symptoms. In the later stages, the following symptoms appear:
– Dull epigastric pain or sometimes the patient feels abdominal pain, this symptom is very similar to that of gastric and duodenal ulcers so it is easily overlooked.
– Loss of appetite, weight loss: Patients often feel a loss of appetite, loss of appetite accompanied by symptoms of unexplained weight loss, rapid weight loss in a short period of time. These may be warning symptoms that require medical examination.
– Nausea, vomiting or bloating after eating can also be a warning sign of stomach cancer.
– Difficulty swallowing: This is a symptom that can occur in stomach cancer, often seen with tumors in the cardia-pylorus region.
– Vomiting blood or passing black stools: If you have signs of vomiting blood (bright red, dark red, blood clots...) or passing black stools for a long time, you may have stomach cancer.
How to treat stomach cancer?
Current treatment of stomach cancer is multimodal: combining many methods such as: surgery, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, radiotherapy... Depending on the patient's condition and the stage of disease detection, the doctor will advise the patient on the appropriate treatment method for each patient. In which, surgery is still the main method, in addition to removing part or all of the stomach, doctors will perform lymph node dissection in stages to ensure the removal of all cancerous tissue.
Currently, with precancerous lesions, if detected early through gastroduodenoscopy, endoscopic intervention such as submucosal resection - ESD is one of the selected methods. With this method, patients will avoid a major surgery and the results are very positive, almost completely cured.
Doctor's advice
Disease prevention is extremely important. To prevent stomach cancer, we need to pay attention to the following:
– Limit eating salty foods, pickles, smoked meats… because they contain a lot of nitrites, which when entering the stomach will combine into substances that can easily cause stomach cancer. You should eat a lot of green vegetables.
– Give up the habit of smoking, drinking alcohol, stimulants… Using these substances will cause many cancers, not just stomach cancer.
– Have a reasonable and regular rest and exercise regimen.
– Completely treat gastric ulcers, gastric reflux and HP bacteria.
– In particular, annual gastric cancer screening by periodic gastric endoscopy is recommended, especially for people over 40 years old, with many risk factors… to detect and treat the disease promptly. Gastric cancer can be completely cured if detected at an early stage.
