In mainland china, more than 400,000 newly diagnosed stomach cancer patients are diagnosed every year, which is the second most malignant gastrointestinal tumor after colorectal cancer.
Not only that, because the incidence of chronic stomach disease in mainland China is quite high, the symptoms of early and medium-term stomach cancer are very similar to chronic stomach disease, and even no symptoms can be at all, so the early diagnosis rate of clinical gastric cancer in mainland China is extremely low.
Of these patients diagnosed, less than 20% were fortunate to be still in the carcinoma in situ or local invasive carcinoma stage, and the remaining more than 80% of patients had entered the middle and advanced stages, or even the terminal stage, before being diagnosed.
Because of this, although the incidence rate of gastric cancer is not as high as that of colorectal cancer, it is the cancerous transformation of the digestive tract with the highest mortality rate. So the question is, is there really no symptom in the early stage of stomach cancer, can not be detected?
From a scientific point of view, the vast majority of early gastric cancer patients do not have obvious symptoms, and only a very small number of them have symptoms similar to peptic ulcers, which is difficult to attract enough attention. As the tumor continues to grow, it may appear more obvious after it affects gastric function, but these manifestations lack specificity.
However, this does not mean that stomach cancer cannot be detected, if the following four abnormalities have been repeated recently, this is likely to be a signal of stomach cancer to report:
1. Emaciation
Like other malignant tumors, stomach cancer will also have cachexia manifestations during the development of the disease, the most typical of which is that the patient's body will quickly lose weight.
The reason for this is mainly related to two reasons, the first is that stomach cancer destroys the digestive function, resulting in food can not be fully digested and absorbed.
Second, it is the rapid proliferation and development of cancer cells, which will consume a lot of nutrients, and in the case of insufficient supplementation and excessive consumption, patients will become thinner and thinner;
2. Stomach pain
Usually, the stomach pain caused by chronic stomach disease will gradually relieve and lose weight after taking relevant drugs and painkillers. Moreover, some stomach pain has regularity, such as stomach ulcers, which begin to hurt about 1 hour after a meal, and gradually relieve after the next meal.
However, stomach cancer is different, its pain is mostly irregular, initially manifested as dull pain, swelling or tingling, and then there can be persistent stomach pain, and the pain becomes more and more serious;
3. Digestive abnormalities
As mentioned above, in the early stages of gastric cancer, patients may experience symptoms similar to peptic ulcers, such as repeated gastroesophageal reflux, worse and worse appetite, bloating after meals, nausea and vomiting, and so on.
In addition, patients may also have special manifestations due to the specific sites of cancer in the stomach. For example, patients with cardia gastric floor cancer may have retrosternal pain, progressive dysphagia, and cancer near the pylorus may be combined with pyloric obstruction;
4. Vomiting blood or melena
After stomach cancer progresses to the middle and advanced stages, patients may experience gastrointestinal bleeding. Usually, the factor of bleeding is mainly related to the invasion of blood vessels by cancer cells, in addition to the erosion and necrosis of some cancerous tissues, and after the cancer causes gastric perforation, it can also lead to gastrointestinal bleeding.
There are two manifestations of gastrointestinal bleeding in gastric cancer, the first is that when the amount of bleeding is small, the patient manifests as fecal occult blood or black tarry stool, and when the bleeding volume is large, the patient may suddenly vomit blood, or even die due to excessive blood loss.
All in all, if similar symptoms have recently appeared inexplicably, especially repeated stomach pain is difficult to alleviate, this may be related to other chronic stomach diseases, even if it is not a signal of the arrival of stomach cancer, and patients need to seek medical attention in time.
So far, the most effective way to diagnose chronic stomach disease in the clinic is actually gastroscopic screening, which is also one of the best auxiliary examination methods for finding and diagnosing gastric cancer. Therefore, if you suspect that you have stomach cancer and have obvious symptoms, it is necessary to perform gastroscopy in time.