What Is Treatment By Staging?

Treatment of stomach cancer depends on:

• The patient's state of health

• The part of the stomach where the cancer is found

• The stage of the disease

There are several reasons for treatment by staging. These include:

The possibility that standard therapy might not affect a cure because of the stage of the cancer when it was found.

Standard treatments might have more side effects than desired for the person's state of health.

Treatment By Staging

Stage 0 - Treatment may be one of the following:

• Surgery to remove part of the stomach (partial or subtotal gastrectomy)

• Surgery to remove the entire stomach and some of the tissue around it (total gastrectomy)

In either surgery, lymph nodes around the stomach may be removed for study by a pathologist to identify the presence or absence of cancer.

Stage I - Treatment may be one of the following:

• Partial gastrectomy with removal of associated lymph nodes (lymphadenectomy)

• Total gastrectomy, including some of the tissue around the stomach, and removal of associated lymph nodes

Stage II - Treatment may be one of the following:

• Partial gastrectomy

• Total gastrectomy

• A clinical trial of surgery followed by radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy

Stage III - Treatment may be one of the following:

• Total gastrectomy, with tissue and lymph node removal

• A clinical trial of surgery followed by radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy

• A clinical trial of chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy

Stage IV - Treatment may be one of the following:

• Surgery to remove a tumor that is blocking the stomach, to reduce bleeding, or to relieve symptoms

• Chemotherapy

Recurrent Stomach Cancer - In some cases, treatment may involve chemotherapy to relieve symptoms. Clinical trials are used to test new biological therapies and chemotherapy drugs.