Medicine: Cancer of the Stomach

Few forms of cancer are so terrifying as cancer of the stomach. It is one of the most difficult to detect in its early stages; neglected, it usually proves quickly fatal, and most cases are discovered too late. There are more than 30,000 new cases in the U.S. each year, and by present estimates, only one victim in 100 can expect to be cured.

This situation could be much improved, says Los Angeles’ Dr. Lewis Warner Guiss (rhymes with mice). If all the victims could be brought to the operating table promptly, 25 times as many could be saved. The blame for the present high death rate, Dr. Guiss believes, is threefold: 1) cancer education has focused too much on the forms that are easiest to detect, 2) people go around for months with severe stomach symptoms before they see a doctor, 3) doctors are so discouraged by the poor outlook for stomach cancer patients that they do not prod them hard enough to accept early surgery.

Dr. Guiss based his conclusions on a study of 2,891 cases. Only 17% went to their doctors within a month of first noticing symptoms;* most waited nearly six months. A full year after first symptoms, less than 20% got to the operating table, where, says Guiss, they should have gone much sooner.

Patients and doctors must share the blame for much of this delay, but, Dr. Guiss believes, there is another mistake for which doctors alone are responsible. If cancer is suspected (as a result of X rays) but not proved, physicians too often try to “manage” the illness with diet and medicines.

Guiss argues that two things must be done to save more victims of stomach cancer: 1) people must be taught that, if they report their symptoms early, they have a chance of being cured, and 2) doctors and patients alike must recognize that so far the only “cure” is surgery.

*Deceptively mild: vague pains and nausea, far less severe than the symptoms of peptic ulcer.