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Cancer of the stomach in the elderly
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Cancer of the stomach in the elderly is a malignant tumor arising from epithelial tissue. In Russia, stomach cancer steadily ranks first among other malignant neoplasms. Ukraine belongs to countries with a high incidence of gastric cancer - 36.9 per 100,000 population, while in the USA - 5 per 1000. Most often gastric cancer occurs in people over 60 years and about 2 times more likely in men, and after 80 years of sexual differences in the incidence of the disease disappear.
[How does stomach cancer appear in the elderly?
Cancer of the stomach in elderly people has extremely diverse symptoms, they are similar to those of other gastric diseases, a characteristic symptom does not exist.
Complaints can be very diverse: from clearly delineated gastric abnormalities to undefined general changes. The cancer of the stomach in the elderly is manifested in the following forms:
- prevalence of local gastric symptoms: deterioration in appetite until complete aversion to food, rapid satiety, gastric discomfort, feeling of heaviness in the epigastric region, belching, hiccough, nausea, vomiting, presence of blood in vomit, bowel after eating, diarrhea or constipation;
- prevalence of general disorders (often the first signs of the disease): unmotivated general weakness, cachexia, fatigue, decreased performance irritability, etc .;
- "Masked" cancer, which occurs with the symptoms of other diseases;
- asymptomatic cancer.
The manifestation of symptoms is due to the localization of cancer.
Thus, with cardiac localization, there are signs of impaired patency of the cardiac sphincter (difficulty swallowing, regurgitation), when the tumor is localized in the body of the stomach, dyspeptic phenomena predominate and in the pyloric cancers the permeability of the outlet part of the stomach is violated (feeling of fullness in the epigastric region, eructation, vomiting and t .).
In an objective examination, an important diagnostic value is important: a decrease in the patient's body weight, an increase in body temperature, an increase in regional lymph nodes to the left in the supraclavicular fossa, the left axillary cavity, and the navel (in later stages). Palpation of the abdomen should be carried out both in the horizontal position of the patient, and in the vertical. When a tumor is found in the stomach region, it is necessary to exclude a neoplasm in neighboring organs - the liver, intestine, spleen, pancreas. It should be remembered that the size of the tumor does not speak about its stage, especially since in old people the tumor process progresses more slowly than in young people, the metastasis comes later.
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How is stomach cancer treated in the elderly?
Until now, the only method of radical treatment is surgery. With a timely operation, the 5-year survival rate is close to 90%. However, if the stomach cancer in elderly people is combined with the pathology of the cardiovascular system, the respiratory apparatus in elderly and elderly people limits the possibility of surgical treatment and then only symptomatic therapy is performed. Of great importance is the observance of deontological rules of communication with oncologists, thorough general care, timely recognition and effective treatment of bleeding, severe gastric obstruction, hyperthermia.