GI Cancer Surgery

Treatment of Stomach Cancer: Surgery:

Depending on how much cancer’s spread, your provider may recommend surgery to remove precancerous cells, a tumor, or all or part of your stomach.

● Upper endoscopy: In the early stages, when the cancer is limited to your stomach’s superficial (uppermost) layers, cancer can be removed through an upper endoscopy. In this procedure (endoscopic submucosal dissection or endoscopic mucosal resection), a gastroenterologist cuts the tumor from your stomach wall and removes it through your mouth

● Gastrectomy. Once the tumor spreads beyond your stomach’s superficial layers, you’ll need surgery to remove all or part of your stomach. Subtotal gastrectomy removes the part of your stomach affected by cancer.Total gastrectomy removes your entire stomach Your provider will connect your esophagus to your small intestine so that you can still eat following total gastrectomy

Other treatments:

Additional treatments attack cancer cells directly.

● Chemotherapy (chemo) uses drugs to shrink cancer cells, making them easier to remove before surgery. Chemotherapy can also kill the remaining cancer cells after surgery It’s usually used in combination with radiation Chemo may be used with targeted drug therapy, too

● Radiation uses targeted energy beams like X-rays to destroy cancer cells. Radiation alone isn’t effective in treating stomach cancer, but it may be used alongside chemo before and after surgery. Radiation can also help relieve symptoms.