November is Gastric Cancer Awareness Month

JOIN WITH AACR TO FIND BETTER WAYS TO PREVENT AND TREAT GASTRIC CANCER

Gastric cancer, also known as stomach cancer, is a disease in which cancer cells form in the lining of the stomach. The wall of the stomach is made up of five layers of tissue: the mucosa, submucosa, muscle layer, subserosa, and serosa. Stomach cancer typically begins in the cells lining the mucosal layer and spreads through the outer layers as it grows.

It was estimated that 31,510 new cases of stomach cancer would be diagnosed in the United States and 10,740 people would die from the disease in 2026, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Most stomach cancers—about 90% to 95%—are adenocarcinomas, cancers that form in mucus-secreting glands.

Stromal tumors of the stomach begin in supporting connective tissue and are treated differently from gastric cancer. 

Men are more commonly diagnosed with stomach cancer than women. Moreover, stomach cancer is less frequent among non-Hispanic whites than people of other races and ethnicities. Risk factors include smoking, diet, and infection with Heliobacter pylori bacteria, which can lead to inflammation of the stomach called atrophic gastritis, according to the NCI.

One Person’s Story

Irasema Partida Chavez received a diagnosis of stomach cancer at the age of 34. After two surgeries, she has had no evidence of disease for eight years. Read her story in the AACR Cancer Disparities Progress Report 2024.

More on Gastric Cancer

While identifying and treating Heliobacter pylori has been a major focus of gastric cancer prevention, research has looked into other cancer-promoting bacteria that could offer a more reliable way to diagnose developing gastric cancer. Learn more on Cancer Research Catalyst, the AACR’s official blog.

In a phase III trial, the addition of the immunotherapy durvalumab (Imfinzi) to chemotherapy both before and after surgery increased the proportion of patients with resectable gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma who did not experience cancer progression after two years. Learn more about this trial, which eventually led to the approval of durvalumab for this cancer type, in AACR’s patient magazine Cancer Today.

AACR Efforts to Accelerate Progress Against Gastric Cancer

In 2026, the first-ever AACR-sponsored clinical trial was launched to test a personalized treatment approach for patients with localized or locally advanced stomach or esophageal cancer to determine its potential to spare patients from life-altering surgery. The first patient for this trial, called AACR Adaptive Biomarker-Driven Organ Preservation Trial in Gastroesophageal Adenocarcinomas (AACR-ADOPT-GEA), was enrolled in August.

This prospective, multicenter, adaptive platform trial was devised by an AACR steering committee composed of leading experts in gastrointestinal cancers. The trial brings together multiple partners to evaluate whether biomarker-matched targeted therapies currently approved for metastatic gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (GEA) are effective against earlier-stage GEA. Learn more about the trial in this press release.

for more information

Please see our page on stomach cancer for more information on this disease and its prevention, screening, and treatment.