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
Preparing for your appointment
By Mayo Clinic staffYou're likely to start by seeing your family doctor or a general practitioner. If your doctor suspects you may have a stomach problem, you may be referred to a doctor who specializes in gastrointestinal diseases (gastroenterologist). Once stomach cancer is diagnosed you may be referred to a cancer specialist (oncologist) or a surgeon who specializes in operating on the digestive tract.
Because appointments can be brief, and because there's often a lot of ground to cover, it's a good idea to be well prepared for your appointment. Here's some information to help you get ready for your appointment, and what to expect from your doctor.
What you can do
- Be aware of any pre-appointment restrictions. At the time you make the appointment, be sure to ask if there's anything you need to do in advance, such as restrict your diet.
- Write down any symptoms you're experiencing, including any that may seem unrelated to the reason for which you scheduled the appointment.
- Write down key personal information, including any major stresses or recent life changes.
- Make a list of all medications, as well as any vitamins or supplements, that you're taking.
- Take a family member or friend along, if possible. Sometimes it can be difficult to absorb all the information provided during an appointment. Someone who accompanies you may remember something that you missed or forgot.
- Write down questions to ask your doctor.
Your time with your doctor is limited, so preparing a list of questions will help you make the most of your time together. List your questions from most important to least important in case time runs out. For stomach cancer, some basic questions to ask your doctor include:
- What type of stomach cancer do I have?
- How advanced is my stomach cancer?
- What other kinds of tests do I need?
- What are my treatment options?
- How successful are the treatments?
- What are the benefits and risks of each option?
- Is there one option you feel is best for me?
- How will treatment affect my life? Can I continue to work?
- Should I seek a second opinion? What will that cost, and will my insurance cover it?
- Are there any brochures or other printed material that I can take with me? What Web sites do you recommend?
In addition to the questions that you've prepared to ask your doctor, don't hesitate to ask questions during your appointment at any time that you don't understand something.
- 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.
