Gastric cancer

1. Big picture

Gastric cancer is usually gastric adenocarcinoma. It is dangerous because early disease is often silent or causes vague dyspepsia, so many patients present late with weight loss, anemia, early satiety, vomiting, or metastatic signs.

Exam core sentence: An older patient with new dyspepsia, weight loss, anemia, early satiety, vomiting, or a non-healing gastric ulcer needs upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with biopsy to exclude gastric cancer.