What Is The Treatment For Stomach Cancer?

By Akshay Sharma December 9, 2016 Health

After your stomach cancer has been diagnosed and the stage identified, lots of issues go into the treatment plan.

The treatment recommended for stomach cancer depends on how far the cancer has spread and the state of your general health. The stomach cancer treatment cost India is relatively low. All hospitals use multi-disciplinary team to design a treatment plan for you.

This team will include:

A gastroenterologist: a specialist in digestive disorders
Surgical oncologist: A surgeon who operates on cancer
Medical oncologist: A doctor who treats cancer with medicines (like chemotherapy)
Radiation oncologist: A doctor who helps kill cancer using radio-therapy.
Pathologist (specialist in diseased tissue)
Dietitian
Psychologist
Social worker
A nurse specialized in cancer care

The main treatment procedures for cancer treatment are:

Surgery
Chemotherapy
Radiotherapy
Trastuzumab

Surgery:

If you are diagnosed early enough with cancer, it may be possible to destroy the cancer completely with surgery. Endoscopy may be done to diagnose cancer (biopsy) as well as to remove cancerous tissue completely in early stage cancer. In this procedure, a flexible, thin tube is passed down the oesophagus (gullet) in place of incisions in the stomach.

But if cancer has spread, major surgery will be required. Surgery may be done to remove cancer blocking the stomach so that symptoms of the cancer are alleviated. Such surgery will need a long recovery time. You will need hospital stay of at least 2 weeks. Also, you need several weeks to recover at home

All or part of your stomach will be removed. When part is removed, it is called as sub-total or partial gastrectomy while removal of total stomach is called as total gastrectomy. Sometimes, the surgeon may remove portions of the oesophagus as well as the stomach, called as oesophago-gastrectomy. Nowadays, laparoscopic, or key hole techniques of surgery have been evolved which involve only tiny incisions.

Surgery may also be done to ease symptoms. They are: stenting, partial or total gastrectomy and bypass surgery.

Chemotherapy:

It is a special cancer treatment that uses medicines such as cytotoxic medicines to end the process of division and multiplication of cancer cells. While circulating via the body, these medicines impact the cancer cells which have spread in the body.

Chemotherapy may be conducted before surgery to lower the amount of cancer cells which have to be removed via surgery. Chemotherapy is also used post-surgery to remove any remaining cells and to prevent the return of cancer. It is especially useful for treating cancer of advance stage which cannot be removed by surgery. It can be given orally (tablets) or intravenously.

Radiotherapy:

This technique uses beams of high energy radiation to kill cancer cells. It is used minimally to treat stomach cancer because it may affect nearby organs. But in case you have advanced stomach cancer involving bleeding or pain, radiotherapy may be needed.

In some cases, a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy may be used to combat stomach cancer.

Trastuzumab:

This is a medication sold under the brand name Herceptin to treat breast cancer as well as advanced stage stomach cancer. This medication blocks the effect of some proteins that stimulate stomach cancer. It cannot cure cancer but reduces its speed of growth and raises time of survival.

These are some of the types of treatment of stomach cancer. Stomach cancer treatment in India cost is low, and so, it attracts medical tourists from around the world.