Country music singer and songwriter Toby Keith died on Monday at the age of 62. He was diagnosed with stomach cancer in the fall of 2021.
Stomach cancer can present with a number of symptoms including weight loss, abdominal pain, nausea, heartburn and early satiety, which is when you fill up quickly and can't eat your whole meal, according to Dr. Andrew Salner, the medical director at the Hartford Healthcare Cancer Institute at Hartford Hospital.
“A range of symptoms, some of which could easily be passed off as, 'Oh, I'm having heartburn or that food just didn't agree with me.' So some of these symptoms can actually be missed and attributed to other things,” said Dr. Pamela Kunz, the director of the Center for Gastrointestinal Cancers at Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center.
That is why stomach cancer can be so aggressive.
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The overall survival rate is about 36%, with 60% of patients being males in their late 60s, according to Dr. Salner.
He added that stomach cancer was much more prevalent in the United States in the early part of the 20th century and has decreased because of refrigeration. Before that, people used to smoke and salt their meats to preserve them.
“Salted and smoked foods are one of the reasons for stomach cancer. And that's why stomach cancer is still very prevalent in Asia, where they actually do screening for stomach cancer much like we do screening for breast cancer,” said Dr. Salner.
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Doctors advise people to eat fruits and vegetables, limit alcohol and tobacco and take part in regular physical activity.
If you have a family history of stomach cancer, you can get genetic testing done.
If you are experiencing any of those symptoms that are out of the norm for your body, see a doctor. There are treatment options available.
“There has been incredible advances just in the last few years in treatments of metastatic stomach and gastroesophageal junction cancer, including a number of new immunotherapies and other new targeted therapies,” said Dr. Kunz.
