Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer takes place in the lining of the stomach and begins in the mucus-creating cells. Like most cancers, stomach cancer also needs to undergo the staging procedure to understand the severity and advancement of the cancer. Stage 4 stomach cancer means that the cancerous cells have spread from the stomach lining to the organs next to the stomach, to the lymph nodes and or other parts of the body.
Tumor factors like vascular invasion, liver metastasis, peritoneal metastasis and lymphatic invasion by cancer cells from the stomach helps tell the prognosis of stage 4 stomach cancer. The cancer is hard to detect in the early stages of the cancer. There are many symptoms of stage 4 stomach cancer like weight loss, constipation, diarrhea, difficulty in swallowing, blood in the stool, nausea, anemia, vomiting, black stool and stomach pain in the upper part. However, there are other stomach problems that show some of the same symptoms. So it’s best that a specialist diagnose any warning signs.
Stage 4 stomach cancer treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or a combination of either. Sadly, by the time the cancer has reached stage 4, a cure may not seem possible. Palliative treatment to relieve the patient of pain or keep away symptoms is then the objective as the cancer would have spread to the distant organs of the body by then. The surgery helps to keep the stomach and or the intestines from being blocked or to control bleeding. In some cases, a laser beam is directed through an endoscope which is sent down through the throat, to vaporize aspects of the tumor. Chemotherapy and radiation is also recommended for stage 4 stomach cancer patients, but these too are to keep away the symptoms and relieve pain. By the time the cancer has reached the last stage, a cure seems almost impossible.
Stage 4 stomach cancer survival rates depend on many factors like age, gender, lymph node metastasis, tumor invasion, peritoneal dissemination, the tumor size and gastrectomy. In a study done, the average survival time for patients who underwent surgery resection was 14.6 months with a survival rate of 4.7 percent. In another study in a European multicenter, the average survival period for stage 4 stomach cancer patients was 3.1 months. According to the National Cancer Institute’s SEER database, the 5 year survival period for the stomach cancer patients in stage 4 is 4 percent.
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