How serious is stomach cancer?

How big is the stomach if you have gastric cancer? Will there be obvious symptoms? This is a question many people have. In fact, early gastric cancer: as the disease progresses, the function of the stomach and the general condition gradually change. These symptoms are often non-specific, can appear from time to time, and can exist for a long time. Such as upper abdominal distension, dull pain, nausea, loss of appetite, belching and weight loss; a small number of ulcer-type (type IIc and type III) early gastric cancers may also have ulcer-like symptoms.

Gastric cancer lesions grow from small to large, from shallow to deep, and from no metastasis to metastasis in a gradual process. Therefore, there is no clear boundary between the early stage, advanced stage and even the late stage. Not only that, the symptoms of each stage often overlap greatly. Some patients have advanced lesions but the symptoms are not obvious. Some patients have more prominent symptoms although they are in the early stage. When gastric cancer develops and expands, especially when it infiltrates through the serosa and invades the pancreas or transverse colon mesentery, persistent severe pain may occur and radiate to the waist and back. Very few patients with perforated cancerous ulcers may also experience severe abdominal pain and signs of peritoneal irritation.

Early gastric cancer may not have any physical signs. The most common physical sign of advanced gastric cancer is upper abdominal tenderness. One-third of patients can feel a mass in the upper abdomen, which is hard and irregular and may be tender. Whether the mass can be found is related to the location, size and thickness of the patient's abdominal wall. Patients with gastric antral cancer are more likely to feel a mass. Other physical signs are mostly caused by advanced gastric cancer or metastasis, such as enlarged, hard, irregular liver, jaundice, ascites, and enlarged lymph nodes above the left clavicle and under the left armpit.