gastrointestinal disorders
Stomach Cancer
Key Points
Helicobacter pyloriinfection is a risk factor for some stomach cancers. Initial symptoms are nonspecific and often resemble those of peptic ulcer disease. Screening with endoscopy is used in high-risk populations (eg, Japanese) but is not recommended in the United States. Curative surgery, perhaps with combined chemotherapy and radiation therapy, is reasonable in patients with disease limited to the stomach and perhaps the regional lymph nodes. Overall, survival is poor (5-year survival: 5 to 15%) because many patients present with advanced disease. 