In stomach cancer, there is an abnormal proliferation of cells inside the stomach. This proliferation can be benign, in most cases, or malignant.
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Benign stomach cancer tumors
- They are gastric polyps . They are lesions that protrude (protrude from their limits, move forward) into the stomach lumen.
- At the beginning of their appearance, they usually give nonspecific symptoms such as nausea, stomach pain, and bloating .
- With this symptomatology, the patient comes to the consultation and radiological or endoscopic studies must be performed to rule out something more serious.
- The most frequent complication is gastrointestinal bleeding .
- Curative treatment is resection of the polyp, which is normally performed endoscopically. If the lesions are multiple, the case should be followed up with periodic gastroscopies.
Malignant tumors of stomach cancer
The most common type is adenocarcinoma of the stomach. This type of tumor can spread to other places in the body in several ways: locally to neighboring organs such as the duodenum or esophagus; If the tumor cells reach the blood vessels, the tumor can affect the liver, peritoneum, lung, bones or skin .
The second most common type of tumor in the stomach is lymphoma . The clinical manifestations are similar in both cases. They only differ in biopsy, since the cells that compose it are different in each case.
Epidemiology of stomach cancer
Until 30 years ago stomach cancer was a disease with a fairly high mortality rate, but in recent decades that number has decreased significantly, thanks to early detection.
It is more frequent in countries like Japan , Colombia and Chile. Within Spain, the areas with the lowest incidence of this disease occur in the Mediterranean area. It normally affects males over 60 years of age. In the case of lymphoma, it usually appears in somewhat younger patients, over the age of 50. When it appears in people younger than these ages, it is almost always due to a family inheritance of cancer .
