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Digestive cancers · free patient guide
Stomach cancer
Gastric cancer
GI & hepatobiliary clinic
What it is
Stomach cancer often begins with symptoms so ordinary that they are self-treated for months, acidity, fullness, mild discomfort after eating. Long-term Helicobacter pylori infection is a significant and treatable risk factor.
The most useful rule is about persistence and change, not severity: indigestion that is new, different, or no longer responding to what used to work deserves a look.
Stomach cancer is common in parts of India, particularly the north-east and the south, and is usually diagnosed late because early symptoms are indistinguishable from ordinary indigestion.
Warning signs worth acting on
- Indigestion that is new in someone over 40, or that has changed in character
- Difficulty swallowing, or food sticking
- Persistent vomiting, especially of food eaten hours earlier
- Unexplained weight loss
- Feeling full very quickly when eating
- Black, tarry stools or vomiting blood
- Iron-deficiency anaemia without a source
How it is diagnosed
- Upper GI endoscopy with biopsy
- CT of chest, abdomen and pelvis
- Staging laparoscopy in selected cases
- HER2 and mismatch-repair testing on the tumour
- Independent pathology review
HER2 status and mismatch-repair status are checked because both change the available options. Broader profiling is considered in advanced disease.
Is it inherited?
A small proportion is hereditary, including diffuse gastric cancer syndromes. A pattern of gastric or breast cancer in the family is worth raising for counselling.
Genetic counselling & family risk →
Prevention & early detection
Treating H. pylori infection reduces risk. Persistent indigestion in an adult is worth investigating rather than managing indefinitely with over-the-counter antacids.
Treatment options
What may form part of a plan
Which of these apply to you depends on your stage, your pathology, your other health and what you want from treatment. That decision belongs at a tumour board, not on a website.
Surgery
Operability assessment and planning here; the operation at the appropriate partner centre.
Chemotherapy
Drug treatment that acts on rapidly dividing cells throughout the body.
Targeted therapy
Medicines matched to a specific alteration found in your tumour.
Immunotherapy
Treatment that works on the immune system rather than directly on the tumour.
Radiotherapy
Targeted radiation to a defined area, planned in millimetres.
Clinical trials
Most Indian patients never learn a trial exists, because nobody is looking.
At KPCIRC
The pathway for this disease
- Nutrition assessment at the first visit, this is the disease where malnutrition most directly limits what treatment is possible
- Dietitian involvement before, during and after surgery, because eating changes permanently
- Careful sequencing of chemotherapy and surgery
- Iron, B12 and long-term nutritional monitoring after gastrectomy
Support that matters most here
Take this with you
Questions to ask your own doctor
These work wherever you are treated. Print the page or take a photograph of this list.
- Was I tested for H. pylori, and does it need treating?
- What will eating be like after surgery, and who helps me with that?
- What did the HER2 test show?
- What order are treatment steps planned in?
This page is not an emergency service. Severe breathlessness, chest pain, uncontrolled bleeding, a high fever during chemotherapy, or a sudden change in alertness means going to your nearest emergency department now, not reading further.