3. Introduction
It is a major cause of cancer mortality worldwide.
Cure rates little better than 5–10%.
5-year survival rate is only 20 %.
Early diagnosis is the key to success.
The only treatment modality able to cure the disease is
resectional surgery.
4. Incidence and Epidemiology
UK - 15 cases per 100 000 population per year
US - 10 cases/100 000 population/year
Eastern Europe - 40 cases/100 000 pop. /yr.
Japan - 70 cases/100 000 population /year
Incidence decreasing for past few decades (1%/yr)
5. In India, the age range is 35-55 years in the South and
45-55 years in the North.
Males > Females (4:1)
Carcinoma of the distal stomach and body of the
stomach is most common in low socio-economic
groups
Proximal gastric cancer seems to affect principally
higher socio-economic groups.
6. Aetiology
Nutritional
Low fat or protein consumption
Salted meat or fish
High nitrate consumption
High complex-carbohydrate
consumption
Environmental
Poor food preparation (smoked,
salted)
Lack of refrigeration
Poor drinking water (well water)
Smoking
Social
Low social class
Medical
Prior gastric surgery
Helicobacter pylori infection
Gastric atrophy and gastritis
Adenomatous polyps
Male gender
Blood group A
Pernicious Anemia
7. H. pylori
Gram-negative microaerophilic, spiral bacterium
two-fold increased risk
oxidative DNA damage
decreasing repair activities and by inducing mutations
in the mitochondrial and nuclear DNA
8. Dietary factors
Diets rich in starch and poor in protein
Less fruit intake
Excessive salt intake
High dietary nitrate
Consumption of large amount of salted fish, soy sauce,
pickled vegetables, cured meat and other salt-
preserved foods
9. Family history and Genetic
alterations
90 per cent of gastric cancers are sporadic, whereas 10
per cent are hereditary
Chromosomal instability (CIN)- loss of heterozygosity
(LOH), translocations, and amplifications – APC
gene, BCL2 gene,β-catenin
Microsatellite instability (MSI)- inactivation of the
mismatch repair gene hMLH1
Tumor suppressor genes alteration - p53 gene, RUNX3
10. Overexpression of cyclin E and CDK together with
aberrant p53 expression & downregulation of p27, a
common event in gastric cancer.
E-cadherin, a product of the CDH1 gene play an
important role in cell motility, growth, and invasion of
gastric cancer.
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression
correlate with poor survival
11. PATHOLOGY
It refers to any malignant neoplasm that arises from
the region extending between the gastroesophageal
junction and the pylorus.
95 % are epithelial in origin- adenocarcinomas
Adenosquamous, squamous, and undifferentiated
carcinomas are however rare.
12. Bormann classification
(macroscopic appearance)
Type 1 - polypoid or fungating lesions;
Type 2 - ulcerating lesions surrounded by elevated
borders
Type 3 - ulcerating lesions with infiltration into the
gastric wall;
Type 4- diffusely infiltrating lesions
Type 5, lesions that do not fit into any of the other
categories
Linitis plastica is the term to describe type 4
carcinoma when it involves the entire stomach.
14. Lauren classification
(Histological)
Intestinal gastric cancer - the tumour resembles
carcinomas found elsewhere in the tubular
gastrointestinal tract and forms polypoid tumours or
ulcers.
Diffuse gastric cancer infiltrates deeply into the
stomach without forming obvious mass lesions but
spreading widely in the gastric wall. has a much worse
prognosis.
15. Lauren Classification System
INTESTINAL DIFFUSE
Environmental Familial
Gastric atrophy, intestinal
metaplasia
Blood type A
Men >women Women >men
Increasing incidence with age Younger age group
Gland formation Poorly differentiated, signet ring
cells
Hematogenous spread Transmural/lymphatic spread
Microsatellite instability
APC gene mutations
Decreased E-cadherin
p53, p16 inactivation p53, p16 inactivation
16. WHO classification system
5 main categories:
Adenocarcinoma papillary, tubular,
mucinous, and signet ring
Adenosquamous cell
carcinoma
Squamous cell carcinoma
Undifferentiated carcinoma
Unclassified carcinoma
17. Early Gastric Cancer: Defined as cancer which is
confined to the mucosa and submucosa regardless of
lymph nodes status.
Advanced Gastric Cancer: Defined as tumor that
has involved the muscularis propria of the stomach wall.
21. International Union Against Cancer (UICC)
staging of gastric cancer
T1 Tumour involves lamina propria
T2 Tumour invades muscularis or subserosa
T3 Tumour involves serosa
T4 Tumour invades adjacent organs
N0 No lymph nodes
N1 Metastasis in 1–6 regional nodes
N2 Metastasis in 7–15 regional nodes
N3 Metastasis in more than 15 regional nodes
M0 No distant metastasis
M1 Distant metastasis (this includes peritoneum
and distant lymph nodes)
22.
23. Staging
IA T1 N0 M0 IIIA T2 N2 M0
T3 N1 M0
T4 N0 M0
IB T1 N1 M0
T2 N0 M0
IIIB T3 N2 M0
II T1 N2 M0
T2 N1 M0
T3 N0 M0
IV T4 N1–3 M0
T1–3 N3 M0
Any T Any N M1
24. SPREAD OF GASTRIC CANCER:
The diffuse type spreads rapidly through the
submucosal and serosal lymphatic and penetrates
the gastric wall at early stage, the intestinal variety
remains localized for a while and has less tendency to
disseminate.
The spread by:
1. Direct (loco regional)
2. Lymphatic
3. Blood (Haematogenous)
4. Transcoelomic
25. Clinical Presentation
Vague epigastric discomfort and indigestion
Early satiety, anorexia
weight loss, fatigue, or vomiting
iron-deficiency anaemia ,
palpable abdominal mass
a palpable supraclavicular (Virchow's) or
periumbilical (Sister Mary Joseph's) lymph node,
peritoneal metastasis palpable by rectal
examination (Blummer's shelf)
palpable ovarian mass (Krukenberg's tumor).
26. INVESTIGATIONS
CBC identifies anemia, with may be caused by
bleeding, liver dysfunction, or poor nutrition.
30% have anemia.
Electrolyte panels and
LFT
coagulation studies
27. Diagnosis:
1. UGI Radiography (double contrast)
2. Endoscopy (Biopsy / Ultrasound)
GOLD STANDARD
Best pre-operative staging
Needle aspiration of LN w/ ultrasound guidance
Can even give preop neoadjuvant tx
3. CT scan (intravenous and oral contrast):
For pre-operative staging
4. Whole body Positron Emission Tomography
scanning (PET):
Tumor cell preferentially accumulate positron-emitting
18F fluorodeoxyglucose.
28. Laparoscopy
Inspect peritoneal surfaces, liver surface.
Identification of advanced disease avoids non-
therapeutic laparotomy in 25%.
Patients with small volume metastases in peritoneum
or liver have a life expectancy of 3-9 months, thus
rarely benefit from palliative resection.
29. Screening of Gastric Cancer
Patients at risk for gastric CA should undergo
yearly endoscopy and biopsy:
1. Familial adenomatous polyposis
2. Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer
3. Gastric adenomas
4. Menetrier’s disease
5. Intestinal metaplasia or dysplasia
6. Remote gastrectomy or gastrojejunostomy
30. TREATMENT:
SURGERY:
The only curative tx for gastric cancer
Except:
1. Can’t tolerate abdominal surgery
2. Overwhelming metastasis
Palliation is poor with non-resective
operations
GOAL: resect all tumors, with negative
margins (5cm) and adequate
lymphadenectomy
Enbloc resection of adjacent organ is done if
needed.
33. Other treatment modalities
Radiotherapy - role in the palliative treatment of
painful bony metastases.
Chemotherapy -combination of epirubicin, cis-
platinum and infusional 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or an
oral analogue such as capecitabine.