Why a stomach cancer diagnosis is often delayed: people ignore early symptoms, doctors say

Stomach cancer is slow to develop, with initial symptoms benign – strange hunger pangs and hiccups. Lower your risk with lifestyle changes

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Stomach cancer presents fairly mild symptoms at first, and the slow-developing disease often goes undiagnosed for a long time. We look at its symptoms, and the risk factors for the disease and how to reduce them through lifestyle choices. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 4:15pm, 18 Jun 2024Updated: 11:12am, 19 Jun 2024

For many patients, a stomach cancer diagnosis comes as a shock.

You would not hesitate to see a doctor if you began to vomit blood, started to pass bloody or very black stools, or had really severe abdominal pain. All of these can be a sign of stomach cancer – but usually at an advanced stage.

Yet few people see a doctor about the common, though seemingly benign symptoms that may signal the early stage of this typically slow-developing disease.

A 55-year-old doctor in the US state of Nebraska recalls having unusual hunger pangs while trying to sleep between hospital shifts – and feeling hungry even though he knew he shouldn’t be. Eating did not quell his hunger.

Stomach cancer usually refers to cancerous changes of the stomach mucosa, the inner lining. Photo: Shutterstock

He was diagnosed with stage 2 stomach cancer, and his is one of six stories of survivors posted on The University of Texas MD Anderson Centre cancer education website.

Even hiccups may be a sign of stomach cancer. They start when the nerves around the diaphragm becoming irritated. This can happen for a number of reasons, including the build-up of fluid in the abdomen and inflammation of the oesophagus – the long tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach.