Stomach cancer being diagnosed earlier, as cases rise among younger people

Doctors are increasingly detecting stomach tumors at an early stage, new research finds, raising hopes for treatment for one of the deadliest types of cancer.

Doctors are increasingly detecting stomach tumors at an early stage, raising hopes for lifesaving treatment for one of the deadliest types of cancer.

Stomach cancer, the disease that killed country music star Toby Keith last year, is typically difficult to catch early and tends to be discovered at an advanced stage when cancer cells have spread, researchers reported Saturday at Digestive Disease Week, a major international conference for doctors and researchers in gastroenterology, liver diseases and endoscopy.

Advances in the tools used to scrutinize the upper gastrointestinal tract have made it possible to get a clearer view of the stomach, allowing doctors to see small tumors that previously wouldn’t have been detected, according to the study’s lead author, Dr. Mohamed Tausif Siddiqui, a gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition fellow at the Cleveland Clinic.

“They used to be detected after they metastasized, which is why there were very poor outcomes,” Siddiqui said in an interview. “The whole paradigm is changing, with more and more local cancers and fewer metastatic cancers being detected.”

Newer endoscopes, thin tubes used to look inside the body, provide higher-definition views of the upper gastrointestinal tract, Siddiqui said. The cameras that are guided into the patient’s stomach have the capacity to zoom in on suspect areas.