Stomach cancer can affect any part of stomach and may also spread further to several other organs. Gastric cancer is another name for gastric cancer. All over the world, stomach cancer is known to be at the second position among the most common cancers that are leading to death. Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium infection which is related to stomach cancer. Suppression of this bacterium delays and prevents the growth of stomach cancer. Down syndrome increases the risk even more.
Unless it is found at an early stage, it becomes difficult to treat stomach cancer. Surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the most common methods of treatments for gastric cancer. Out of these, surgery is the one which is most popular. This basically involves elimination of some part or the whole of gastrectomy from the stomach.
On the other hand, chemotherapy is the consumption of certain drugs to fight the cancer. It is successful to the extent of increasing the survival time of the patient by reducing his tumor size. 5-FU, methyl-CCNU, BCNU, doxorubicin, taxotere, and cisplatin are the known drugs that are used for the treatment.
Till date exact causes of stomach cancer have not been found but there are certain conditions that have been analyzed through various studies which gives an overview of this hazardous disease:
- Age: this has been observed that sufferers of stomach cancer are normally above the age of 72 years.
- Sex: this is another fact which has come out that possibility of occurrence of this disease in men is more than women.
- Diet: people who eat fresh fruits and vegetables are less likely to develop this disease than those who consume pickles, salted and smoked food.
- Smoking: this habit has the possibility to cause stomach cancer in a person.
Last but not least, radiation therapy refers to the employment of high-energy rays that damages the cancer cells and stops their growth.
