Palliative care for advanced gastric cancer

Expert Rev Anticancer Ther. 2020 Jul;20(7):575-580. doi: 10.1080/14737140.2020.1781620. Epub 2020 Jun 23.

Abstract

Introduction: Proactive palliative care can effectively relieve symptoms early and effectively as well as improve the quality of life of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC).

Areas covered: The review summarizes palliative care for GAC. GAC caused specific symptoms, such as malignant gastric outlet obstruction (GOO), bleeding, weight loss, and/or ascites, therefore, these symptoms must be addressed specifically.

Expert opinion: Palliative care should start early to control general symptoms, thus may improve the patient's condition to make the patient eligible for anti-cancer treatment. As some stage IV GAC patients can now live longer, palliative interventions become more important. A multimodality interdisciplinary approach is strongly encouraged.

Keywords: Gastric adenocarcinoma; malignant gastric outlet obstruction; palliative care; palliative gastrectomy; palliative radiotherapy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Adenocarcinoma / pathology
  • Adenocarcinoma / therapy*
  • Ascites / etiology
  • Gastric Outlet Obstruction / etiology
  • Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / etiology
  • Humans
  • Neoplasm Staging
  • Palliative Care / methods*
  • Quality of Life
  • Stomach Neoplasms / pathology
  • Stomach Neoplasms / therapy*
  • Weight Loss