Gastric cancer

“ Emaciation and debility are sometimes the first symptoms of gastric cancer to attract attention, and often the first symptoms to arouse anxiety. More frequently these symptoms of disordered nutrition first appear after dyspeptic ailments or pain have existed for several weeks or months. It may aid in the diagnosis of gastric cancer to weigh the patient [p. 552] from time to time, as carcinoma is generally attended by progressive loss of weight.
The patient frequently becomes morose and depressed in spirits. His strength fails, sometimes disproportionately to the loss of flesh. ”

“ Should there be any suspicion that the tumor is caused by impaction of feces, a positive opinion should be withheld until laxatives have been given.
Mistakes may occur as to the diagnosis between gastric cancer and tumors of the omenta, the mesentery, the transverse colon, the lymphatic glands, and even the spleen or the kidney. Encapsulated peritoneal exudations near the stomach have been mistaken for gastric cancer. Where a mistake is likely to occur each individual case presents its own peculiarities, which it is impossible to deal with in a general way. ”

“ Each form of gastric cancer has certain peculiarities which require separate consideration.
Medullary carcinoma grows more rapidly than the other varieties of cancer. It forms usually soft masses, which project into the stomach and are prone to break down in the centre and develop into the crater-like ulcers already described. All of the coats of the stomach are rapidly invaded by the growth. The consistence of the tumor is soft, the color upon section whitish or reddish-gray, sometimes over a considerable extent hemorrhagic. Milky juice can be freely scraped from the cut surface of the tumor. ”

“ PROGNOSIS.—There is no proof that cancer of the stomach has ever ended in recovery. It may be admitted that partial cicatrization of gastric cancer may occur. We have, however, no sufficient reason to believe that cancer of the stomach has ever been completely destroyed by any process of nature or by any medicinal treatment. ”

“ As a rule, patients with gastric cancer die from gradual exhaustion. In a condition of extreme emaciation and feebleness the patient sinks into a state of collapse, accompanied often with stupor, sometimes with mild delirium. The death-agony is prolonged frequently from twelve to twenty-four hours, and sometimes even longer. On the other hand, death may occur somewhat suddenly in the last stages of gastric cancer, and without satisfactory explanation. ”

“ There are rare cases of gastric cancer in which the first symptom to attract attention is uncontrollable vomiting, accompanied often with pain and rapid emaciation. Such cases may run so acute a course that a fatal termination is reached within one to two months.39 In these cases, which have been interpreted as acutely-developed gastric cancers, it is probable that the cancer has remained latent for weeks or months before it gave rise to marked symptoms. ”

“ Cases of gastric cancer have been reported in which death has occurred from gastrorrhagia before there has been time for any blood to be either vomited or voided by stool. As might naturally be expected, patients with gastric cancer do not usually rally as readily from the effects of gastric hemorrhage as do most patients with simple ulcer. ”

“ Osler relates that he has known a patient with gastric cancer to be relieved of digestive disturbances and to gain 18 pounds in weight as the result simply of the visit of a sanguine consultant who denied the presence of a tumor. Improvement in the ability to chew food, to articulate words or to move a limb are phenomena familiar to those who attempt to treat cases of cancer. The victims of this disease seem to be in a very high degree “suggestible” and impressionable and respond nobly to every therapeutic effort.
Circulatory changes in tumors offer an interesting group of clinical symptoms. ”

“ The absolutely largest number is found between fifty and sixty years, but, taking into consideration the number of those living, the liability to gastric cancer is as great between sixty and seventy years of age. Nevertheless, the number of cases between thirty and forty years is considerable, and the occurrence of gastric cancer even between twenty and thirty is not so exceptional as is often represented, and is by no means to be ignored. ”

“ It is not rare for gastric cancer to cause secondary deposits in the stomach itself. Sometimes it is difficult to decide which of two or more cancers in the stomach is the primary growth, as in Ripley's case of ulcerated cancer of the cardiac orifice with a similar growth around the pyloric orifice.92 It is probable that in very rare instances multiple primary cancers may develop in the stomach. ”

“ A radical cure has not, however, been effected, although life has been prolonged for a year and a half after the operation.99 The possibility of permanent cure of gastric cancer by extirpation must be admitted. Enthusiasm over this possibility, however, is seriously lessened by the fact that a radical cure is not to be expected unless the operation is undertaken when the tumor is of small size, has produced no distant metastases, is free from many adhesions, and the patient is not greatly prostrated. ”

“ Gastric cancer often causes important secondary changes in the coats and the lumen of the stomach. In the neighborhood of the tumor are often found hypertrophy of the muscular coat and fibrous thickening of the submucous coat. Polypoid hypertrophy of the mucous membrane near the cancer is not rare. Not only near the tumor, but over the whole stomach, chronic catarrhal gastritis usually exists. ”

“ A typical case of gastric cancer runs a course about as follows: A person, usually beyond middle age, begins to suffer from disordered digestion. His appetite is impaired, and a sense of uneasiness, increasing in course of time to actual pain, is felt in the stomach. These symptoms of dyspepsia are in no way peculiar, and probably at first occasion little anxiety. It is, however, soon observed that the patient is losing flesh and strength more rapidly than can be explained by simple indigestion. He becomes depressed in spirits. ”

“ As a rule the seat of the gastric cancer is the pylorus. The patient gives evidence of chronic gastritis with continued pain, localized tenderness, vomiting of partially digested food and at times dilatation from extreme fermentation. The hemorrhages are as a rule not large, the blood having changed to a brownish color resembling coffee grounds. Vomiting, in cases where the pylorus is involved, generally occurs several hours after eating, the vomitus being in an advanced state of fermentation. Upon analysis of the stomach contents there is found to be a lack of free HCl. ”

“ Primary cancers may be present at the same time in different organs of the body; for instance, in the uterus and in the stomach.84 The possibility of multiple primary cancers is to be borne in mind in considering some of the apparently secondary cancers of the stomach, as well as in determining whether certain cancers are secondary to gastric cancer or not. ”

“ The functions of the stomach are almost invariably disordered in gastric cancer. Sometimes, especially in the early stages, this disorder is only moderate, and is manifested by the milder symptoms of indigestion, such as uneasy sensations of weight and fulness after a meal, nausea, flatulent distension of the stomach relieved by eructation of gases, and heartburn. ”