Stomach Cancer, Cost Treatment Surgery Top Hospital Best Doctors in India 2024

Stomach cancer is cancer that occurs in the stomach — the muscular sac located in the upper middle of your abdomen, just below your ribs. Your stomach receives and holds the food you eat and then helps to break down and digest it.

Another term for stomach cancer is gastric cancer. These two terms most often refer to stomach cancer that begins in the mucus-producing cells on the inside lining of the stomach (adenocarcinoma). Adenocarcinoma is the most common type of stomach cancer.

The stomach is a muscular bag with a capacity of about 1 liter or quart. It lies along the digestive tract between the esophagus and the small intestine. The stomach serves as a reservoir for food eaten during meals and begins the process of digestion. Its inner walls are composed of glands that secrete acid and digestive enzymes.

Causes of Stomach Cancer:

The exact cause of stomach cancer is unknown, but a number of conditions can increase the risk of the disease. These include:

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection of the stomach. H. pylori are a bacterium that infects the lining of the stomach and causes chronic inflammation and ulcers.
Advanced age (an average age of 70 for men and 74 for women).
Male gender (men have more than double the risk of getting stomach cancer over women.)
A diet low in fruits and vegetables.
A diet high in salted, smoked, or preserved foods.
Chronic gastritis.
Pernicious anemia.
Some gastric polyps.
Family history of gastric cancer (which can double or triple the risk).
Smoking.

Other people who may be at an increased risk include:

People who use tobacco or drink alcoholic beverages regularly.
Workers in certain industries, including those in the coal mining, nickel refining, and rubber and timber processing industries.
Workers exposed to asbestos fibers.

Symptoms of Stomach Cancer:

The symptoms of stomach cancer can be quite vague. Symptoms can include

Indigestion, acidity and burping
Feeling full
Bleeding or tiredness and breathlessness because you have lost blood
Blood clots
Pain
Feeling or being sick
Difficulty in swallowing
Loss of appetite or weight loss (usually symptoms of a more advanced cancer)

The earliest symptoms are often acidity and burping. But these are symptoms of other stomach problems too. Most people who have long term indigestion and wind never develop cancer. About 1 in every 50 people going to the doctor for the first time with indigestion and burping will have stomach cancer.

Diagnosis of stomach cancer:

The earlier stomach cancer is diagnosed, the better your chances of recovery. If you develop any of the symptoms listed above and you are over 45, visit your GP. Your GP will ask about your symptoms and examine you. You may then be referred to a doctor specialising in cancer (an oncologist).

You may have the following tests to confirm diagnosis.

Blood tests – to check for anaemia and liver function.
Stomach examination – your doctor may use a special endoscope to look inside your stomach. See related factsheet on gastroscopy.
Biopsy – a sample of tissue is removed and sent to a laboratory for diagnosis.
Barium meal X-ray – you will be asked to swallow a liquid containing a special dye (barium) that shows up on X-rays. Barium will show up any unusual growths in the stomach lining.
Scans – these may include ultrasound, MRI or CT scans. These are done to check the stomach, liver, and surrounding lymphatic system to see if the cancer has spread.

Treatment of Stomach Cancer:

Your treatment options for stomach cancer depend on the stage of your cancer, your overall health and your preferences.

Stomach Cancer Surgery-

Surgery is the most common treatment for stomach cancer. An operation to remove all or part of the stomachis called a gastrectomy. The type of gastrectomy you have depends on the stage of the cancer and whether or not it has spread.

Removing early-stage tumors from the stomach lining– Very small cancers limited to the inside lining of the stomach may be removed using endoscopy in a procedure called endoscopic mucosal resection. The endoscope is a lighted tube with a camera that’s passed down your throat into your stomach. The doctor uses special tools to remove the cancer and a margin of healthy tissue from the stomach lining.
Removing a portion of the stomach (subtotal gastrectomy) – During subtotal gastrectomy, the surgeon removes only the portion of the stomach affected by cancer.
Removing the entire stomach (total gastrectomy) – Total gastrectomy involves removing the entire stomach and some surrounding tissue. The esophagus is then connected directly to the small intestine to allow food to move through your digestive system.
Removing lymph nodes to look for cancer– The surgeon examines and removes lymph nodes in your abdomen to look for cancer cells.
Surgery to relieve signs and symptoms– Removing part of the stomach may relieve signs and symptoms of a growing tumor in people with advanced stomach cancer. In this case, surgery can’t cure stomach cancer, but it can make you more comfortable.

Radiation Therapy:

Radiation therapy uses high-powered beams of energy, such as X-rays, to kill cancer cells. The energy beams come from a machine that moves around you as you lie on a table.

In external beam radiation therapy, a large machine is used to carefully aim a beam of radiation at the tumour. The radiation damages the cells in the path of the beam – normal cells as well as cancer cells. Radiation therapy, together with chemotherapy, may be used to treat stomach cancer after surgery. It can be used to relieve pain or control the symptoms if the tumour cannot be removed.

Multimodality Therapy:

While previous studies of multimodality therapy (combinations of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy) gave mixed results, the Intergroup 0116 (SWOG 9008) study showed a survival benefit to the combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy in patients with nonmetastatic, completely resected gastric cancer. Patients were randomized after surgery to the standard group of observation alone, or the study arm of combination chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Those in the study arm receiving chemotherapy and radiation therapy survived on average 36 months; compared to 27 months with observation.

Prevention from Stomach Cancer:

It’s not clear what causes stomach cancer, so there’s no way to prevent it. But you can take steps to reduce your risk of stomach cancer by making small changes to your everyday life. For instance, try to:

Eat more fruits and vegetables– Try to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet each day. Choose a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables.
Reduce the amount of salty and smoked foods you eat– Protect your stomach by limiting these foods. Experiment with herbs and other ways of flavoring foods that don’t add sodium.
Stop smoking– If you smoke, quit. If you don’t smoke, don’t start. Smoking increases your risk of stomach cancer, as well as many other types of cancer. Quitting smoking can be very difficult, so ask your doctor for help.
Ask your doctor about your risk of stomach cancer– Some medical conditions increase your risk of stomach cancer, such as anemia, gastritis and stomach polyps. If you’ve been diagnosed with one of these conditions, ask your doctor how this affects your stomach cancer risk. Together you may consider periodic endoscopy to look for signs of stomach cancer. There are no guidelines to determine who should undergo screening for stomach cancer in the United States. But in some cases, you and your doctor may decide your risk is high enough that the benefits of screening outweigh the potential risks.

Recovery from Stomach Cancer surgery:

Stomach cancer surgery is an operation that is significant and drastic, however it is also often necessary to remove the cancer from the stomach and prolong a person’s life. The surgery is intense and recovery is also quite involved and takes several weeks to run its course. Knowing what to expect before the surgery can make recovery easier.

The recovery process begins when waking up in the ICU. As long as the surgery went well, the doctor will move you to the ward within a day or so after the surgery. In the ICU, you’ll probably be drowsy and disoriented because of the pain medications.

Because stomach cancer surgery affects the digestive system, the bowel often does not work for a few days. It typically takes about one week before you are allowed to start eating again.

Start moving very gradually. Although it may seem impossible at first to move at all, a physiotherapist will visit you each day to help you work on breathing and leg exercises.

Epidemiology:

Stomach cancer is the fourth most common cancer worldwide with 930,000 cases diagnosed in 2002. It is a disease with a high death rate (~800,000 per year) making it the second most common cause of cancer death worldwide after lung cancer. It is more common in men and in developing countries.

It represents roughly 2% (25,500 cases) of all new cancer cases yearly in the United States, but it is more common in other countries. It is the leading cancer type in Korea, with 20.8% of malignant neoplasms.

Metastasis occurs in 80-90% of individuals with stomach cancer, with a six month survival rate of 65% in those diagnosed in early stages and less than 15% of those diagnosed in late stages.

One in a million people under the age of 55 seeking medical attention for indigestion has stomach cancer. And one in 50 of all ages seeking medical attention for burping and indigestion have stomach cancer. Out of 10 million people in the Czech Republic, only 3 new cases of stomach cancer in people under 30 years of age in 1999 were diagnosed. Other studies show that less than 5% of stomach cancers occur in people less than 40 years of age with 81.1% of that 5% in the age-group of 30 to 39 and 18.9% in the age-group of 20 to 29. For Taiwan (statistic not shown on the above map), the mortality was 11.75 per 100,000 (1996).

Cost of Stomach Cancer Treatment Surgery in India

In India the cost of the stomach cancer treatment surgery is very low in comparison with other countries. Low cost and quality is a major reason that international patients visit India. Many international patients look for a low cost option as they don’t have medical insurance and the cost of the treatment in their own country is very high. So, they search for countries where they can get the quality treatment at low cost. The table below shows the cost difference in India and other countries.

Stomach Cancer Surgery in India

Stomach cancersurgery in India is provided by team of expert doctors, mostly western trained, supported by highly skilled nursing professionals, technicians, and aided by state-of-the-art medical equipment at their command. Hospitals in India bring the very best of medical treatments and state of art medical instruments and offer specialized treatment and surgery to patients. Hospitals of Mumbai and Chennai providing stomach cancersurgery in India are known internationally for standards of health care delivery, success rates and service levels. India has the technology and the skilled super specialists along with outstanding infrastructure and professional management, nurses and paramedical staff to take on international competition.

Why India:

Hospitals in India at Mumbai and Chennai are well-known for stomach cancer surgery. The Hospitals with their finest Surgery are at par to international standards. Equipped with the cutting edge technology, the health care sector in India has geared up its speed to be one of the most flourishing industries with it excellent facilities, brilliant improvement in infrastructure and world-class treatments. Medical tourism in India offers an array of superb quality hospitals and treatments at very low cost and thus India proves itself to be one of the best places for the medical treatment in the world. Medical tourism in India offers an entire package of surgical treatment in India for specialized healthcare sectors. The surgical package includes domiciliary hospitalization and stay in India, in patient care, post operative medical consultancy with comprehensive healthcare advice.