Articles: Modern ideas about risk factors for developing stomach cancer

Typical symptoms of stomach cancer

Although the symptoms of stomach cancer in the initial phase do not give a clear picture, it is possible to identify the pathology before the disease becomes complicated by metastasis. To do this, it is necessary to periodically undergo preventive examinations, especially if there is a genetic predisposition to the disease.

Patients often prefer diagnosis and treatment of gastric oncology and other types of tumors, for example, treatment of breast cancer abroad. Typical signs will help indicate that a malignant tumor has developed in the tissues of the stomach.

The patient exhibits the following complex picture:

1. 
   Dysphagia . Problems with swallowing food. If in the initial stage hard and dry pieces cause difficulty, gradually difficulties arise when consuming soups and soft ingredients.

2. Dyspepsia . The patient feels that the organ is full. Even a minor snack provokes heaviness in the epigastric area. This symptom occurs as a result of pyloric stenosis, a violation of the passage of gastric juice and semi-digested food into the duodenum. Often the picture is accompanied by bitter belching and heartburn.
3. Stool disorders. Diarrhea and constipation are periodically noted.
4. Epigastric pain. Depending on the location of the tumor and the stage of its development, it can be aching, sucking, or dull. Most often, pain is present after eating, but when the form is advanced it becomes permanent. If metastasis affects the pancreas, the pain radiates to the back.
5. Cachexia . The person loses his appetite. The symptom itself may be a sign of another disease. For example, it is not uncommon for a loss of appetite to mean that prostate cancer treatment is required abroad. Therefore, the symptom is not the main one; it is necessary to take into account the accompanying clinical picture. Often, loss of appetite and changes in taste preferences provoke severe exhaustion, even anorexia.
6. Attacks of nausea and vomiting . These are the main symptoms of stomach cancer. In the initial stage, the patient complains of nausea after almost every meal. But as the cancer progresses, the sign is constantly present, even at night.

If the listed symptoms systematically appear, you should contact a gastroenterologist as soon as possible and undergo a detailed examination. It is better to treat stomach cancer abroad, since it is in foreign clinics, according to statistics, that the maximum positive results are achieved.

Depending on the symptoms, there are several characteristic forms of stomach cancer:

1. Dyspeptic . It is characterized by loss of appetite, a feeling of heaviness in the epigastrium, nausea and vomiting, stool disorders, hiccups, heartburn, and belching with a bitter aftertaste.
2. Painful . The main symptom is the presence of painful sensations. The pathology is often confused with a stomach ulcer.
3. Feverish . In this case, doctors may assume that bone cancer treatment is required abroad, since an increase in temperature in oncology often accompanies damage to skeletal tissues. In the case of stomach cancer, a low-grade fever is noted; in the morning the values ​​often reach 38–40 degrees. Other signs are practically absent.
4. Anemic . Hypochromia or hyperchromia are equally evident. Other signs are mild.
5. Hemorrhagic . Gastric bleeding and vomiting are typical. In this case, the masses expelled by the organ resemble coffee grounds.

Since the symptoms are often unclear, only an experienced doctor will be able to make an accurate diagnosis based on the symptoms. In Israel, the examination gives a 100% result, as modern methods and high-precision equipment are used.

Cancer prevention: don't waste time

According to the Federal State Statistics Service, in recent years people have become more likely to die from cancer. According to experts, this is largely due not to backwardness, but to the progress of medicine: with improved diagnosis and treatment of the main “killers” of the population - cardiovascular diseases - the average life expectancy has crept up, and those who were previously destined to become victims of a heart attack or stroke, They are now living happily through their cancer.

But the outcome of a “meeting” with a malignant tumor is not always predetermined, and regardless of your age, the chances of victory are high, the main thing is to suspect something is wrong in time. In one of our previous publications, we already talked about cancerophobia, the most common types of cancer in our country and methods for their early diagnosis. Here are a few more real dangers that await each of us.

Breast cancer (women) and prostate cancer (men)

Today, these two diseases are a serious threat to the lives of women and men over 40 years of age. Ignoring their prevention means knowingly accepting the chance of getting sick. Treatment of both breast and prostate cancer is traumatic for patients both physically and psychologically. How to escape from a gloomy prospect?

• Every year, starting at age 40, undergo screening examinations
  . For women this is a mammogram or MRI of the mammary glands, for men - an ultrasound of the prostate and a blood test for prostate-specific antigen (PSA).
• If you are overweight, lose weight
  . Obesity significantly increases the likelihood of developing both diseases.
• Do not overuse multivitamins
  - according to some data, significant excess doses of individual microelements can provoke the development of a tumor.
• If there have already been cases of breast or prostate cancer in your family, take a DNA blood test for BRCA-associated types of malignant neoplasms.
  A positive result will mean the need for more detailed and frequent examinations.
• A good way to prevent breast cancer in women is breastfeeding
  . Take learning this process seriously and don’t give up on it for fear of losing your figure or harming your own health!

Stomach cancer

A good example of how a competent system of preventive measures can avert the threat of death from patients is the story of how the Japanese defeated stomach cancer. The prevalence of these tumors in Japan was once extremely high, but since every resident of the country over 30 years of age began to undergo fibrogastroduodenoscopy (FGS) annually, 85% of tumors are detected at an early stage, which almost eliminates deaths. Why don't we listen to the wisdom of our eastern neighbors?

And also to protect the stomach from cancer:

• Eat less fatty, fried, canned food
  ... and generally eat less. In the modern world, it is much more difficult to die from malnutrition than from overeating (or rather, from its consequences).
• Drink less alcohol.
  Frequent consumption of alcoholic beverages is fraught not only with alcoholism, but also with stomach cancer, so maintain moderation if you do not want doctors to one day forbid you to drink anything stronger than kvass.
• If you have a chronic stomach disease
  (for example, gastritis or peptic ulcer),
  take treatment seriously
  , this is not only a matter of well-being, but also cancer prevention. It is extremely important to achieve complete destruction of the bacterium that causes Helicobacter pylori ulcers, which, as scientists have proven, increases the likelihood of developing cancer.
• Strengthen your immune system naturally
  - through regular exercise, proper nutrition and good sleep. Cancer cells appear in the body of each of us from time to time, but in 99% of cases, cells of the immune system recognize and destroy them before they have time to multiply and turn into a tumor. Therefore, it is so important to help the body in this “sanitary work”.

Liver cancer

The liver is often an accidental victim of other oncological diseases - it is here that malignant cells circulating in the bloodstream, separated from the main tumor (stomach, breast and pancreas or large intestine), enter. At the site where the cancer cell “landing”, a metastasis develops - a secondary tumor, which is very difficult to remove.

There are also primary liver tumors. The most common of these is hepatocellular carcinoma. The main reason why this tumor can occur is chronic viral hepatitis B and C.

Is there a way to detect liver cancer early?

• Regularly - at least once every two to three years - undergo an ultrasound of the liver
  . This simple study provides valuable information about the general well-being of this organ, allowing the identification of asymptomatic parasitic infestations, metabolic disorders, vascular diseases, and tumors.
• Take a responsible approach to the prevention of viral hepatitis B and
  C. It is very easy to become infected with them - through blood during medical or cosmetic procedures (and in the case of hepatitis B - also through sexual contact), but recovery is difficult and expensive. If you have already been diagnosed with a chronic infection, visit your doctor regularly. The best protection against hepatitis B is vaccination (vaccinations against hepatitis C are still in clinical trials).
• Another serious risk factor for liver cancer is alcohol abuse
  . Chronic toxic damage to the cells of this organ by ethyl alcohol and other toxic substances leads to irreversible cirrhosis. It is dangerous in itself, and also provokes the start of a malignant process.

Liver transplantation is comparable in complexity to heart transplantation. Organizing this operation is extremely troublesome and, in the realities of our healthcare system, unpromising. Therefore, the best thing you can do for your health is to take care of your native liver without subjecting it to undue stress.

***

It is impossible to insure against cancer, but detecting it in a timely manner is quite possible. Yes, it seems like an expensive pleasure: spending even half a month’s salary per year on preventative medical tests and examinations seems like an unaffordable luxury. On the other hand, we definitely spend no less on car repairs, updating our wardrobe or buying new household appliances. At the same time, regular examinations and lifestyle corrections make it possible to prevent other diseases, which at the wrong moment can “eat away” a significant part of your family budget, time, and vital energy. So the investment looks quite reasonable.

Also, don’t forget about the options that the public health care system provides us with. Mammography, colonoscopy, fluorography and some types of tests are available to citizens of our country completely free of charge - as part of the medical examination program or simply upon request at the clinic to which you are assigned. Therefore, do not turn into fatalists and do not shift responsibility for your well-being to abstract higher powers. Everyone’s health is their personal merit!

Olga Kashubina

Photo istockphoto.com

Atypical symptoms of stomach cancer

The clinical picture of stomach cancer is often complicated by nonspecific signs:

1. 
   The patient has thrombosis of superficial venous vessels.

2. The skin becomes pale and anemia is diagnosed.
3. In rare cases, on the contrary, the epithelial layer, especially in the folds, acquires a pronounced color and hyperpigmentation appears.
4. In the morning hours the temperature rises.

Such a picture often becomes a cause of confusion; doctors, not finding characteristic symptoms, Fr.

Risk factors

The exact causes of the disease could not be established. The likelihood of developing stomach cancer increases when leading an unhealthy lifestyle, in particular, smoking, alcohol abuse, poor nutrition (including a large amount of salt, smoked, pickled foods, foods with carcinogens in the diet, lack of warm liquid food, lack of a developed diet).

Risk factors also include aging of the body, genetic predisposition, immunological disorders, anemia (occurs due to a lack of vitamin B12), chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer, polyposis, and previous gastric surgery.

The first symptoms of stomach cancer

So what systematic signs should you pay attention to in order to identify oncology during early development?

These include:

1. general fatigue;

2. discomfort in the epigastric zone;
3. pallor of the mucous membranes and skin;
4. decreased appetite;
5. loss of pleasure from eating.

However, it should be borne in mind that even the first mild symptoms vary depending on the location of the tumor.

Symptoms of a midsection tumor

So, with damage to the middle section, the following is observed:

1. Weight loss, weakness, pale skin.
2. The appetite disappears, the person becomes indifferent.

Even if cancer treatment abroad is not required, you should consult a doctor to find out the causes of your illness.

Symptoms in the antrum

When a malignant tumor affects the lower section, the following symptoms become characteristic:

1. Nausea and vomiting. Most often, these are the signs of stomach cancer that patients complain about when visiting a doctor. The symptom is provoked by stagnation of gastric secretions and food as a result of narrowing of the area where the organ passes into the duodenum.
2. Heaviness in the epigastric region.
3. The presence of an unpleasant odor from the mouth.
4. Bitter belching.

If the vomit is dark in color, it means that the pathology is accompanied by bleeding, the patient must be immediately hospitalized.

Prevention

In order to prevent stomach cancer and its catastrophic consequences, it is advisable to:

• Quit alcohol and smoking.
• Increase your consumption of natural foods rich in microelements, vitamins and other nutrients.
• Supplement the diet with the biologically active drug Stamacort NPTsRIZ based on the A-10 peptide complex (available in packages of capsules and tablets).
• Normalize body weight.
• Reduce consumption of foods high in fat.
• Undergo preventive medical examinations and promptly treat pathologies of the digestive system.

In people who follow the principles of a healthy lifestyle, the likelihood of developing tumors of the gastrointestinal tract and other systems is significantly reduced.