Palliative care for advanced gastric cancer
Kazuto Harada, Meina Zhao, Namita Shanbhag, Hideo Baba, Jaffer A. Ajani
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.