As we honor stomach cancer awareness month, what do you want our patients and families to pause and remember?
Stomach cancer is a very difficult to treat cancer at advanced stages and it is much easier to treat when diagnosed at earlier stages when tumors are small and able to be removed with surgery. Pay attention to symptoms like unexplained weight loss, fatigue, and changed eating habits. Tell your doctor if you are worried and they can do quick tests to make sure everything is ok or to catch stomach cancers early.
What role do clinical trials and research play in advancing the diagnosis and care of patients with stomach cancer?
Clinical trials are how we improve our cancer treatments. There are very few clinical trials for stomach cancer in the United States, and the lack of clinical trials really slows down the ability to help cure more stomach cancer patients. We need to do more - it is really important to participate in patient advocacy groups and help to support clinical trials for stomach cancer.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face in caring for patients with stomach cancer?
Patients often have difficulty eating and malnutrition because of the cancer, as well as side effects of cancer treatments. Getting expert nutritional guidance is essential for supporting patients during treatment – and this is a good example of how getting treatment at a Cancer Center with multidisciplinary stomach cancer specialists is important for patient outcomes.
Can you talk about the use of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy and how this can be made more widely available to patients?
Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) is a highly precise radiation treatment that we can use to treat spots of cancer instead of removing these spots with surgery. We need to do more clinical trials with radiation so that we understand the benefit of SBRT for stomach cancer patients. Again, it is important for patients to advocate for and support clinical trial work for innovative treatments, like SBRT, for the treatment of stomach cancer. We need to do better, and we can do better if we all work together!