What Treatment is There for People Who Already have Stomach Cancer?
Sorry, but we do not have a cure. In brief, once you have developed stomach cancer, treatment of HP will not cure it. Often the HP goes away anyhow. It might be worthwhile to treat the HP because it could aggravate stomach symptoms but treatment of HP might not really make a big difference to the cancer. The cancer would need to be biopsied (at endoscopy) and a decision made whether or not it is resectable. A detailed CT scan of the abdomen should be done and any suggestion of spread of the cancer should be followed up by needle biopsy, aspiration or other studies to obtain diagnostic tissue. If the tumor is localized to the stomach then surgery is the best choice. If the tumor has spread then surgery is only palliative and might only need to be done to relieve or prevent blockage or hemorrhage. Chemotherapy has progressed modestly in the past 20 years such that about 50% of gastric cancers respond to chemotherapy. These are usually partial responses rather than complete remissions. Th
