Signs of stomach cancer and the chance of a complete cure

According to the Ministry of Health, each year about 10,400 people in our country are diagnosed with stomach cancer, and this number is expected to increase to about 11,500 cases by 2020. Stomach cancer ranks third among common cancers in Vietnam, but the rate of early detection is very low. Most patients are in the late stages of treatment when they come to the hospital, missing the golden opportunity for treatment.

Doctor Vo Duy Long, Deputy Head of the Department of Digestive Surgery, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, said that if cancer is detected at an early stage, the patient only needs to be treated with surgery without chemotherapy, the chance of recovery will be higher.

"The disease will be completely cured right from the onset, the cure rate is over 90% after 5 years, saving costs, patients can return to normal life quickly. Currently, the best method of screening for stomach cancer is gastroscopy," said Dr. Long.

Advanced stomach cancer is cancer in the second stage and later. At this stage, cancer begins to invade other organs, metastasize to lymph nodes, and metastasize to distant sites, so the possibility of complete treatment is very difficult, and the disease easily recurs after treatment.

With the development of medicine, patients with late-stage stomach cancer still have the opportunity for treatment thanks to advanced treatment regimens in the world.

Depending on the patient's condition and stage, the doctor will prescribe appropriate methods such as surgery first followed by chemotherapy, chemotherapy first followed by surgery, or late-stage chemotherapy, using targeted drugs.

Dr. Long said that the method of "partial upper gastrectomy" for tumors located in the upper third of the stomach and "near total gastrectomy" for tumors located in the middle third of the stomach are two methods that do not require removing the patient's entire stomach but still ensure the treatment principles and can be applied to patients in the advanced stage but not yet metastasized.

Currently, science does not know the clear cause of stomach cancer. Factors that cause the disease include eating a lot of salt, pickling, fermentation, smoked and grilled meat, food contaminated with toxic chemicals, tobacco, obesity, people infected with HP virus combined with other risk factors. People with stomach diseases such as ulcers, chronic gastritis, stomach surgery, stomach polyps, genetic factors, blood type A have a higher risk of stomach cancer than normal people.

People with early stage stomach cancer often have normal symptoms such as abdominal pain, loss of appetite, blood in stool, stomach ulcers, gastric reflux... Because the symptoms are not clear, people often ignore cancer screening, which directly affects the treatment opportunity.

Doctor Long recommends that if the body shows signs of abdominal pain, indigestion, bloating for more than two weeks, a family history of cancer or the patient is infected with HP virus, everyone should be screened for stomach cancer. Absolutely do not self-treat with traditional medicine, medicine of unknown origin, need to eat enough nutrition and follow the doctor's treatment regimen to achieve high efficiency.