How to Identify the Type of Stomach Cancer
Cancer causes cells to multiply uncontrollably and abnormally in the body, and spread throughout. Stomach cancer or gastric cancer begins in the stomach and develops slowly over a long period of time. Before cancer progresses, there are pre-cancerous changes that will occur in the inner lining or mucosa of the stomach. There are no symptoms for this, and it often goes undetected. Cancer can take place in different sections of the stomach with different outcomes.
There are different types of stomach cancer, which are determined based on the position of the tumor.
1. Types of stomach cancer
There are different types of stomach cancer based on the location of the tumor in the stomach.
- Adenocarcinomas
It is one of the most common types of stomach cancer that develops in the cells of the stomach’s innermost lining. Most of the stomach cancers are categorized as adenocarcinomas of the stomach.
- Lymphoma
It is the cancerous growth in the immune system tissue that could start wherever lymph tissues are found. Lymphomas in the stomach are rare and hence, account for only 4% of total stomach cancer cases.
- Gastrointestinal stromal tumors, or GISTs
It is one of the rarest types of stomach cancer that is found in a particular cell in the lining of the stomach called interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs). If you examine it under a scope, it seems similar to muscle or nerve cells. The tumor can develop anywhere in the digestive tract, but around 60-70% of them occur in the stomach.
- Carcinoid tumors
This cancer is also one of the rare types of stomach cancer with only 3% of stomach cancer incidence. It usually starts in the hormone-producing cells of the stomach, but they do not spread to other organs in the body.
2. Stages of stomach cancer
The stage of cancer is dependent on the size and spread of the tumor.
It is also called carcinoma in situ. Cancer is only found on the surface of the epithelium. It has not spread to any other layers of the stomach.
The tumor is only in the top layer of the tissue lining the inside of the esophagus or stomach. At most, cancer cells spread to a few lymph nodes nearby.
The tumor has spread deeper and is spreading to a deeper muscle layer of the stomach wall or esophagus. At this time, the tumor might also spread to more lymph nodes.
Cancer cells could have spread through all the layers of the esophagus or stomach and reached the nearby structures. It could also be a smaller cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes.
- Stage IV
By this stage, the cancer cells have spread to various parts of the body, making it difficult to treat.
It is the position of the tumor that decides the different types of stomach cancer. The stage of cancer shows the spread of the tumor. Both these are important in deciding the line of treatment.
