What is palliative surgery for gastric cancer? Relieve the patient's symptoms

The purpose of palliative surgery for gastric cancer is to relieve the patient's symptoms. In gastric cancer patients, if there is obstruction or bleeding, palliative surgery is usually used. Palliative surgery for gastric cancer includes palliative total gastrectomy, palliative subtotal gastrectomy, gastrojejunostomy, jejunostomy, etc., to improve the patient's quality of life, but it cannot prolong the patient's survival and is not conducive to the treatment of gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors. If there are no contraindications, surgical treatment is generally required because surgery is currently the main treatment for gastric cancer and the only way to cure gastric cancer. Gastric cancer surgery includes radical surgery and palliative surgery. Radical surgery refers to the radical removal of the tumor in the stomach. So, what is palliative surgery for gastric cancer?
Palliative surgery for gastric cancer refers to the situation that some patients with gastric cancer cannot completely remove the gastric cancer. If they have symptoms such as bleeding and pain, they must undergo palliative surgery to relieve the symptoms. At this time, the patient's prognosis is still very poor, and only some symptoms can be relieved to a certain extent. Other patients have pyloric obstruction and other complications, and can only undergo simple anastomosis.
Palliative surgery refers to surgery that cannot be radically removed, but is performed only because of complications of gastric cancer that must be treated surgically. The purpose is to relieve the patient's pain and prolong the patient's survival. For example, palliative gastrostomy or gastrojejunostomy or jejunostomy can be performed for incurable gastric cardia cancer or obstructive gastric antrum cancer. For incurable gastric cancer perforation, palliative perforation repair or palliative subtotal gastrectomy can be performed.
Palliative gastric cancer resection refers to surgical removal of the tumor, but there is still residual tumor in the body. Surgery only reduces the tumor burden of the body and cannot completely remove the tumor. This palliative resection can also reduce the occurrence of serious complications such as bleeding, perforation, and obstruction. In addition to palliative resection, palliative gastric cancer surgery also includes gastrostomy, enterostomy, gastrojejunostomy, and gastric diaphragm. These are not radical surgeries for gastric cancer.
The above content is an introduction to what palliative surgery for gastric cancer is. Through the above content, you can better understand that palliative surgery for gastric cancer is suitable for patients whose gastric cancer cannot be completely removed, but the surgery only reduces the body's tumor burden and cannot completely remove the tumor.