A 24-year-old girl was diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer. Five types of people are "favorites" of gastric cancer. To prevent gastric cancer, young people should pay special attention to the following points

According to media reports, a 24-year-old graduate student at a university in Nanjing began to feel stomach discomfort frequently since July last year. After searching on the Internet, she thought it was "gastric ulcer" and thought it might be caused by excessive pressure from graduation and employment, as well as irregular work and rest. Every time she felt stomach discomfort, she took medicine on her own to relieve it.

Recently, she sought medical attention after developing severe abdominal distension and was diagnosed with "advanced gastric cancer with abdominal metastasis", and it was a highly malignant gastric signet ring cell carcinoma.

According to the latest data from my country in 2020, the incidence and mortality of gastric cancer ranked third among all malignant tumors. There are about 1.2 million new cases of gastric cancer each year in the world, of which my country accounts for about 40%. The proportion of early gastric cancer in my country is very low, only about 20%, and most of them are already in the advanced stage when discovered, with an overall 5-year survival rate of less than 50%.

Can gastric cancer be diagnosed early? How can it be prevented? Let's learn about it together...

1. What is gastric signet ring cell carcinoma?

Gastric cancer is a malignant tumor originating from gastric mucosal epithelial cells and can occur in various parts of the stomach. The most common type in my country is gastric adenocarcinoma. It is one of the most common digestive tract tumors and seriously threatens people's life and health.

Gastric signet ring cell carcinoma is a special type of gastric cancer that contains a large amount of mucus. Because the cells are full of mucus, the cell nucleus is squeezed to one side of the cell, making it look like a ring, hence the name.

Gastric signet ring cell carcinoma is highly invasive, rapidly progresses, and is highly malignant. It is more common in young people, with mild early symptoms. The lesions grow diffusely and infiltratively. The growth direction of gastric cancer cells does not protrude into the stomach cavity, but invades outward along the submucosal layer, muscular layer, and serosa, eventually causing the entire stomach wall to become thicker and harder, and the peristalsis of the gastric mucosa disappears. It resembles leather, hence the name "leather stomach."

However, signet ring cell carcinoma is only a histological classification and cannot directly determine the tumor stage.

2. Are there any obvious early symptoms and signs of gastric cancer?

Most patients with early-stage gastric cancer have no obvious symptoms and signs. Some patients may experience indigestion and stomach discomfort, a feeling of fullness after eating, mild nausea, loss of appetite, burning sensation in the stomach, etc.

Deep tenderness in the upper abdomen may be the only noticeable sign.

3. Starting age and high-risk groups for gastric cancer screening

The Chinese Medical Association's Guidelines for Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment of Gastric Cancer (2021 Edition) states:

The incidence of gastric cancer increases with age, and the incidence rate in people over 40 years old increases significantly. Therefore, it is recommended that 40 years old be the starting age for gastric cancer screening.

About 10% of gastric cancers show familial clustering, and the incidence of gastric cancer in relatives of gastric cancer patients is 4 times higher than that in those without a family history.

According to the epidemiological characteristics of gastric cancer in my country, those who meet the following items 1 and any of items 2 to 6 should be classified as high-risk groups and are recommended as screening targets:

1. Age > 40 years old, regardless of gender;

2. People living in areas with a high incidence of gastric cancer;

3. People infected with Helicobacter pylori (Hp);

4. Patients with gastric diseases such as chronic atrophic gastritis, gastric ulcer, gastric polyps, residual stomach after surgery, hypertrophic gastritis, pernicious anemia, etc.

5. First-degree relatives of gastric cancer patients;

6. The presence of other high-risk factors for gastric cancer, such as high-salt, pickled, smoked foods, smoking, heavy drinking, etc.

4. Gastric cancer screening and diagnosis methods

Gastric cancer screening mainly includes serological examination (serum pepsinogen (PG), serum gastrin 17 (G-17), serum Hp infection detection) and endoscopic examination.

Gastroscopy and endoscopic biopsy are the "gold standard" for the diagnosis of gastric cancer.

Gastroscopy can directly see the esophagus and gastric mucosa, and can more clearly observe superficial lesions of the mucosa. If suspicious lesions are found under endoscopy, a biopsy is required.

If you have a low tolerance for pain, you can consider painless gastroscopy.

However, painless gastroscopy has contraindications. People with severe hypertension and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases should not undergo painless gastroscopy.

5. How to prevent gastric cancer?

As people's work pace accelerates and pressure continues to increase, stomach problems have troubled many people. However, in real life, people often ignore stomach problems, and some even develop stomach cancer without knowing it.

To prevent gastric cancer we need to:

1. Chew your food slowly, quit smoking and limit alcohol consumption, reduce salt intake, eat less pickled, smoked, red meat, and processed meat, eat less spicy, stimulating, raw, and cold food, and eat more fresh vegetables and fruits.

2. Maintain a regular work and rest schedule, don’t stay up late, and don’t suppress your temper.

The mental stress caused by anxiety can also put tremendous pressure on the human gastrointestinal tract, and may even "cause" stomach cancer!

3. Treat Helicobacter pylori infection promptly.

4. People at high risk of gastric cancer should regularly participate in cancer prevention physical examinations and screenings, pay attention to gastric diseases, receive timely treatment and undergo regular check-ups.

When you feel stomach discomfort, especially when taking medicine cannot relieve the symptoms, you should immediately have a gastroscopy to find out the cause.

A single gastroscopy may result in missed diagnosis, so another gastroscopy should be performed if necessary.

5. The timing of gastric cancer detection directly determines the patient's survival rate.

The 5-year survival rate of early-stage gastric cancer is over 90%, while that of mid- to late-stage gastric cancer is only 20% to 30%. Screening is conducted among high-risk groups for gastric cancer to achieve early detection, early diagnosis, and early treatment.

Gastric cancer is a disease that is closely related to lifestyle and eating habits. Many young people have bad habits such as irregular eating and overeating, which are risk factors for gastric cancer.

It is so important to keep your mouth shut!