In a video published on Instagram, Dr Alexandre Mensier, visceral surgeon specializing in the digestive tract (@thefrench_chirurgien) recounts a case discovered after anemia. The main thing to remember: stomach cancer can remain discreet, but certain signs and risk factors should lead you to seek medical advice without trivializing the symptoms.
Risk factors to know, without shortcuts
In about 90% of cases, stomach cancer is adenocarcinomathat is to say a tumor developed from cells of the gastric mucosa. This reminder is important, but it is not enough to explain why the disease appears: several factors can increase the risk.
The main known factor is chronic infection with
Helicobacter pylori. The National Cancer Institute indicates that it is involved in at least 80% of gastric cancers. But the nuance is essential: only a minority of infected people develop cancer. You should therefore neither panic in the event of an infection, nor neglect it when a doctor decides to look for it or treat it.
Other recognized risk factors include:
tobacco, a diet rich in salty products and poor in fruits and vegetablescertain family histories and rare genetic predispositions. Biermer’s disease is also one of the medical situations more rarely associated with an increased risk.
Other risk factors are mentioned such as overweight, obesity and gastroesophageal reflux. Here again, the context must be clarified: excess weight is mainly associated with cancers of the cardia, the upper part of the stomach close to the esophagus. Reflux is more related to proximal tumors or the esophagogastric junction. In other words, not all factors concern exactly the same locations.
To better understand this subject, you can consult our file on stomach cancer: symptoms, diagnosis and treatments, as well as our article dedicated to Helicobacter pylori infection.
Symptoms that should prompt medical advice
Stomach cancer is often nonspecific at first. Digestive problems can have many other, much more common, causes. But certain signs should not be minimized, especially if they persist, worsen or combine with each other.
- Upper abdominal painlasting digestive discomfort, nausea or repeated vomiting;
- Loss of appetite, unintentional weight loss or unusual fatigue;
- Difficulty or discomfort swallowing;
- Signs of anemia, such as unusual paleness or shortness of breath;
- Digestive bleeding, such as blood in vomit or black stools.
The practical point is simple: digestive problems that last or change justify talking to a doctor. And certain signs should lead to consultation without waiting
: difficulty swallowing, repeated or bloody vomiting, black stools, unintentional weight loss, significant fatigue or known anemia.
The case mentioned by Dr Alexandre Mensier clearly illustrates this vigilance. He describes a patient initially short of breath, in whom a blood test reveals anemia. In the reported course, a CT scan then reveals a mass in the stomach, then a fibroscopy with biopsies confirms an adenocarcinoma. This case alone doesn’t prove anything, but it does show why anemia or unexplained shortness of breath should not be treated as a mere detail.
In case of suspicion, the key examination is upper digestive endoscopy with biopsies : a tube equipped with a camera allows you to observe the esophagus, stomach and duodenum, and to take small fragments of tissue for analysis. The scan is then used to assess the extent of the disease. In the video, the account also mentions an exploration of the abdomen to look for small damage to the peritoneum and possible chemotherapy around the surgery; These steps depend on the medical file and do not apply to all situations.
Finally, it is not a question of transforming these signs into self-diagnosis. The objective is to identify what merits medical advice, particularly if several symptoms appear together or if you have a first-degree family history of stomach cancer. In certain situations, testing for Helicobacter pylori may be suggested by a healthcare professional.