Stomach Cancer Prevention

In the case of stomach cancer, prevention of the disease involves avoiding the risk factors you can control while increasing protective factors against the cancer. Examples of risk factors people have control over include smoking and eating a diet high in smoked, salted, or pickled food. Some studies have suggested that eating foods that contain beta-carotene and vitamin C may decrease the risk of developing stomach cancer. While adopting these stomach cancer prevention strategies does not guarantee that you will not get the disease, it will decrease the chances of it occurring.

 

Stomach Cancer Prevention: An Introduction

A stomach cancer risk factor is anything that increases a person's chance of developing the disease. A stomach cancer protective factor is anything that decreases a person's chance of getting the cancer. Stomach cancer prevention entails avoiding risk factors associated with the disease and increasing protective factors against it.
 
For purposes of this article, the term "stomach cancer" refers to gastric adenocarcinoma (cancer of the glandular tissue in the stomach). It is the most common type of stomach cancer. Other types of stomach cancer include lymphomas (cancers involving the lymphatic system) and sarcomas (cancers of the connective tissue, such as muscle, fat, or blood vessels).
 
(Click Lymphoma for information about a less common type of cancer that may develop in the stomach.)
 

Stomach Cancer Prevention: Know the Risk Factors

While some stomach cancer risk factors can be avoided, some cannot. For example, people can choose to quit smoking, but they cannot choose the genes that they have inherited from their parents.
 
Some stomach cancer risk factors include:
 
  • Eating a diet high in smoked, salted, or pickled food
  • Smoking
  • Being infected with Helicobacter pylori bacteria
  • Having certain pre-existing conditions (such as chronic gastritis or pernicious anemia)
  • Older age
  • Being male
  • Having a mother, father, sister, or brother who has had stomach cancer.
 
(Click Stomach Cancer Risk Factors to learn more about risk factors for this type of cancer.)
 
(Stomach Cancer Prevention Continued: Page 2)
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Written by/reviewed by: Arthur Schoenstadt, MD
Last reviewed by: Arthur Schoenstadt, MD