Survival Stomach Cancer

What is gastric cancer and what is the survival rate?

Gastric cancer is cancer of the stomach. The survival rate will depend on the

• Exact type of stomach cancer
• Stage of the cancer
• Grade of the cancer

There are different types of stomach cancer. Most stomach cancers are 'adenocarcinomas'. This is cancer that arises from the glandular tissue lining the stomach. There are other rarer types such as lymphoma of the stomach.

The stage of a cancer is the size of the tumour and whether it has spread. A stage one cancer is the earliest and will have a better outlook than a more advanced cancer.

The grade of the cancer is decided by what the cells look like under the microscope. The more like normal cells the cancer cells look, the lower the grade. The more abnormal the cells appear, the higher the grade. Low grade cancers tend to be less aggressive than high grade cancers.

Overall survival statistics don't tell you very much. The overall 5 year survival statistics for stomach cancer are about 20%. That means approximately 1 in 5 of all those diagnosed with stomach cancer are still alive 5 years later. But that figure hides the fact that many people have advanced stomach cancer when they are diagnosed. If the cancer is localized, with no cancer in the lymph nodes, then 75% live for at least five years and two thirds of these will be cured. Nor do the statistics tell you what treatment those people had, or how their cancer responded to that treatment.

So you can see that you will probably need to talk to your own doctor about this. You could print this page and take it with you as a basis for your discussion. But do think about what you want to ask beforehand. If you ask the question, you need to be prepared to hear the answer. There is a page with more detail about stomach cancer statistics and prognosis (outlook) in the main stomach cancer section.