Introduction - Stomach Cancer

Cr : MedlinePlue Medical Encyclopedia

Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer or gastric carcinoma, is a treatable cancer that can often be cured when it is found and treated at a local stage. The stomach lies along the digestive tract between the oesophagus and the small intestine. It is where the process of digestion takes place besides acting as a storage of food eaten during meals. Its inner walls are composed of glands that secrete hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes.

In Malaysia, stomach cancer incidence starts to increase after 40 years of age.  The rates in males were about 1.5 times higher than in females. Chinese had the highest rates, more than 4 times that of Malays who had the lowest rates. Indians had rates about 3 times that of Malays. However among Indians, the men had an incidence rate only10% more than women. Stomach cancer is also common on Japan and China but is less common in the United Kingdom where about 8500 people suffer from it. 

Adenocarcinoma is the most common form of cancer that affects the stomach which arises from the gland that produces mucus and stomach juice in the innermost layer of the stomach. It is believed that more than 90%  of stomach cancer is caused by adenocarcinoma.

There is some rare types of stomach cancers:


Lymphomas - cancers which arise from lymphatic tissue within the wall of  stomach. Maglinant lymphoma of stomach is an immunoblastic type where the cells are loosely arranged and have prominent nucleoli as well as abundant cytoplasm.


Sarcomas -  arise from the muscle or connective tissue within the wall of stomach.


Carcinoid cancer -  arise from cells in the stomach lining which produces hormone. There won't be any significant symptoms until 15 years later. Gastric carcinoids may cause the secretion of 5-hydroxytryptophan when it results in the secondary deposition in liver.


Spheroidal-cell carcinoma –   The cell forms a signet-ring as a result of the secretion and accumulation of mucin in the cytoplasm which eventually lead to these cancer. 


Gastrointestinal Stomal Tumors (GIST) - cancers developing in the tissues which support the digestive organs.

The most widely accepted system of classification was developed by Lauren which divide the stomach cancer into 2 groups :

a.     Intestinal gastric cancer : different degrees of differentiation im glandular structure.

b.    Diffuse gastric cancer : cells that infiltrate the gastric wall. These cells are usually poorly differentiated cells.

Stomach cancer takes a few years to develop. Therefore, it is often detected only until the later stages of this cancer and can be heredity or caused by multifactorial, which is the combination of genetic and environment. Stomach cancer ranked as the ninth most common cancer in Malaysian males and fourteenth among Malaysian females, comprising 4.1% and 2.5% of all cancers reported in males and females respectively. In Malaysia, Chinese were at highest risk, followed by Indians and Malays in both sexes.