November is Gastric Cancer Awareness Month

JOIN WITH THE 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 three layers of tissue: the mucosal layer, the muscularis layer, and the serosal layer. Stomach cancer begins in the cells lining the mucosal layer and spreads through the outer layers as it grows.

Most stomach cancers – about 90 percent – are adenocarcinomas, cancers that form in mucus-secreting glands. About 5 percent of them are lymphomas, cancers that form in the immune system. Additionally, some stomach tumors are of the carcinoid type, a slow-growing type of neuroendocrine cancers.

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

An estimated 26,890 new cases of stomach cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and 10,880 people are expected to die from the disease in 2024, according to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

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, age, diet, and long-term stomach inflammation, such as infection with Helicobacter pylori bacteria, according to the NCI.

What Is the AACR Doing in The Area of Gastric Cancer or Stomach Cancer?

The AACR is active in supporting gastric cancer research. Grant-supported research projects and other AACR initiatives in gastric cancer research in 2023 include:

• AACR-Bristol Myers Squibb Cancer Disparities Research Fellowship to Nicole B. Halmai, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Davis, for an investigation of “Genetic ancestry and DNA methylome in gastric cancer among Latinos.”
• AACR-Debbie’s Dream Foundation Career Development Award for Gastric Cancer Research to Heather McGee, MD, PhD, an assistant professor at City of Hope, Duarte, California, for a study of “Radiation-Induced Inflammasome Activation and Alarmins in Gastric Cancer.”
• AACR-LBCA Invasive Lobular Carcinoma Research Fellowship to Capucine Héraud, PhD, a research fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, for work “Elucidating the Unique Biology of ILC and Response to Endocrine Treatments.”

Research supported in 2022 included:

• AACR-Debbie’s Dream Foundation Career Development Award for Gastric Cancer Research to Moritz Eissmann, PhD, group leader at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, for “Identification of therapeutic vulnerabilities that promote clonal fitness and metastatic spread of gastric cancer cells in vivo.”

for more information

Please see our page on gastric or Stomach Cancer for more information on this disease and its prevention, screening and treatment