Treatment Options

Stomach cancer is a somewhat treatable disease, with over half the patients with early stage disease being curable. Early-stage disease accounts for only 10 to 20 percent of all cases diagnosed in the U.S. In early-stage disease over 50 percent are curable. 

Surgery

Surgery is the most common treatment for stomach cancer. The type of procedure required depends on the extent of the cancer. The ideal treatment is radical surgery, meaning that most or all of the stomach is removed along with the surrounding lymph nodes.

Surgical oncologists at Miami Valley Hospital perform total and subtotal gastrectomy for stomach cancer. Total gastrectomy is the complete removal of the stomach and the establishment of a Gastric Bypass esophagojejunostomy (a direct passage from the esophagus to the middle part of the small intestine, bypassing the stomach). This procedure is done to remove large tumors or malignant (cancerous) lesions that are localized in the upper third of the stomach.

The traditional open procedure is performed through a long midline incision in the abdomen. Research has demonstrated that completely minimally invasive (using small incisions) total and partial gastric resections for non-cancerous and cancerous tumors have good results and were proven to be safe procedures.

Robotic gastrectomy enables your surgeon to maintain the oncological standard of the open surgical technique while offering the benefits of minimally invasive surgery.

Radiation

Radiation therapy is a cancer treatment that uses high energy x-rays or other types of radiation to kill cancer cells. Stomach cancer may be treated with radiation therapy. It is given as external or internal radiation therapy. External radiation therapy uses a machine outside of the body to send radiation toward the cancer. Internal radiation therapy uses a radioactive substance sealed in needles, seeds, wires, or catheters that are placed directly into or near the cancer.

Chemotherapy

Stomach cancer chemotherapy uses anticancer drugs to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy is classified as systemic therapy because the drugs enter the bloodstream and can affect cells all over the body. The chemotherapy drugs used for stomach cancer are usually injected into a blood vessel but they can also be given by mouth.