Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
Stomach cancer is cancer that occurs in the stomach — the muscular sac located in the upper middle of your abdomen, just below your ribs. Your stomach is responsible for receiving and holding the food you eat and then helping to break down and digest it.
Another term for stomach cancer is gastric cancer. These two terms most often refer to stomach cancer that begins in the mucus-producing cells on the inside lining of the stomach (adenocarcinoma). Adenocarcinoma is the most common type of stomach cancer.
Stomach cancer is uncommon in the United States, and the number of people diagnosed with the disease each year is declining. Stomach cancer is much more common in other areas of the world, particularly Japan.
- Gastric cancer. Fort Washington, Pa.: National Comprehensive Cancer Network. http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/PDF/gastric.pdf. Accessed Feb. 23, 2009.
- Gastric cancer treatment (PDQ) patient version. National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/gastric/patient/allpages/print. Accessed Feb. 23, 2009.
- Gunderson LL, et al. Cancer of the stomach. In: Abeloff MD, et al. Abeloff's Clinical Oncology. 4th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Churchill Livingstone; 2008:1431.
- What is stomach cancer? American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_1X_What_is_stomach_cancer_40.asp. Accessed Feb. 23, 2009.
- Stomach cancer. Cancer.Net. http://www.cancer.net/patient/Cancer+Types/Stomach+Cancer. Accessed Feb. 23, 2009.
- Feldman M, et al. Sleisenger & Fordtran's Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, Management. 8th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2006:378.
- Tsugane S, et al. Diet and the risk of gastric cancer: Review of epidemiological evidence. Gastric Cancer. 2007;10:75.
- Stomach (gastric) cancer prevention (PDQ) patient version. National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/prevention/gastric/patient/allpages/print. Accessed Feb. 23, 2009.
- Stomach (gastric) cancer screening (PDQ) patient version. National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/screening/gastric/patient/allpages/print. Accessed Feb. 23, 2009.
- World Cancer Research Fund. Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective. Washington, D.C.: American Institute for Cancer Research; 2007:144.
