What Are the Benefits of Chemotherapy for Stomach Cancer?

Stomach cancer occurs in a number of different forms. It is usually treated with a combination of procedures that includes chemotherapy, a drug treatment that uses various chemicals to kill cancer cells in the body. The use of chemotherapy for stomach cancer has several benefits, such as shrinking tumors and destroying cancer cells left in the body after surgery.

Most kinds of cancer are treated with some combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. It is quite common for a person undergoing dealing with cancer to receive all three kinds of treatment, but it depends on the type, stage, and location of the cancer. A person who is going to have stomach cancer surgery may receive a course of chemotherapy prior to having surgery. Using chemotherapy for stomach cancer prior to surgery has the benefit of shrinking tumors, making it easier for them to be operated on and removed.

After surgery, almost all patients receive chemotherapy for stomach cancer. In some cases the doctor may choose not to use chemotherapy, usually when the cancer is considered too advanced to be cured. At that point, the surgery is done to make the patient more comfortable. More commonly, chemotherapy for stomach cancer is used after surgery to rid the body of any cancer cells that might remain once the tumors have been removed. This helps to ensure that the cancer does not metastasize, or spread, to other parts of the body.

In people with advanced stages of stomach cancer, chemotherapy may be used instead of surgery to help to make the person comfortable, but without the expectation of a cure. In such cases, the use of chemotherapy for stomach cancer can slow or halt the growth of tumors, relieving pressure and discomfort in many cases. This benefits the patient by allowing him or her to live longer and more comfortably.

People with certain kinds of rare stomach cancers, such as a gastrointestinal stromal tumor, may be treated by chemotherapy alone. The hope is that using appropriate chemotherapy drugs on these types of cancers, which are not usually considered operable, will eventually shrink any tumors and destroy the cancer cells in the stomach, resulting in a cure for the patient. The chemotherapy drugs used for treating a gastrointestinal stromal tumor are targeted drugs, which means that they attack specific cell abnormalities, killing only the cancer and not any healthy cells. Whether the drugs used are targeted or not, the benefits of chemotherapy for stomach cancer in most patients are significant, often leading to the eradication of the cancer and the prolonging of life.