What is Stomach Cancer Treatment? |
Treatment option for stomach cancer depends on the stage of cancer. There are several treatments for Stomach cancer such as Surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and targeted drugs.
- Surgery
Surgery is one of the treatments to remove all of the stomach cancer and a margin of healthy tissue, when possible. There is several type of surgery:
- Endoscopic mucosal resection.
Endoscopic surgery is to removing early-stage tumors from the stomach lining. In this stage, very small cancers limited to the inside lining of the stomach may be removed using endoscopy in a procedure called endoscopic mucosal resection. Endoscope is a lighted tube with a camera that’s passed down your throat into stomach. The doctor uses special tools to remove the cancer and a margin of healthy tissue from the stomach lining.
- Subtotal (partial) gastrectomy.
Partial gastrectomy surgery is to removing a portion of the stomach. The surgeon removes only the portion of the stomach affected by cancer.
- Total gastrectomy
Total gastrectomy surgery is to removing the entire stomach and surrounding tissue. Other than that, esophagus connected directly to the small intestine to allow food to move through your digestive system.
- Lymph node removal
The surgeon examines and removes lymph nodes in your abdomen to look for cancer cells.
- Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy uses high-powered beams of energy, such as X-rays, to kill cancer cells. Before surgery, radiation is used along with chemo to try to shrink the tumor to make surgery easier. After surgery, radiation is used to kill very small remnants of the cancer that cannot be seen and removed during surgery. Radiation therapy also can be used to slow the growth and ease the symptoms of advanced stomach cancer, such as pain, bleeding and eating problems.
- Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a drug treatment that uses chemicals to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy drugs travel throughout your body, killing cancer cells that may have spread beyond the stomach. Chemotherapy can be used in different ways to help treat stomach cancer. Before surgery chemotherapy is known as neoadjuvant treatment, which can shrink the tumor and possibly make surgery easier. After surgery chemotherapy is known as adjuvant treatment, which is to kill any cancer cells that may have been left behind but are too small to see.
- Targeted Drugs
Targeted therapy uses drugs that attack specific abnormalities within cancer cells. Targeted drugs used to treat stomach cancer include:
- Trastuzumab (Herceptin)
This is drugs for stomach cancer cells that produce too much HER2.
- Imatinib (Gleevec)
This is drug for a rare form of stomach cancer called gastrointestinal stromal tumor.
- Sunitinib (Sutent)
This is drug for gastrointestinal stromal tumor.
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