A STOMACH ULCER? OR IS IT CANCER?
One must be alert to the earliest symptoms of stomach cancer that distinguish it from peptic ulcer. These include weight loss with nausea, indigestion, and upper abdominal discomfort or pain right after meals. This timing is important, since simple peptic ulcer pain is usually relieved by food, while cancer pain tends to be brought on by meals, or is suddenly made worse by them.
Early stomach cancer produces pain similar to that of ordinary peptic ulcer, and we must be careful not to delay surgery (which can cure about one case in three) while we continue trying medications. The trap, according to the British Medical Journal (286:149) is that cancer pain may be largely relieved (at least temporarily) by antacids or the drug Cimetid-ine (Tagamet). Also, because so many gastric cancer patients have previously had a peptic ulcer, they may assume that a new bout of pain is merely a recurrence.
Quite apart from the danger that Cimetidine is masking stomach cancer symptons, there is also the possibility that Cimetidine may actually induce stomach cancer by reducing acidity and thereby permitting growth in the stomach of bacteria that form carcinogenic nitrosamines. People who are taking this drug should be aware of these dangers and consult their physicians at once if they have a question about symptoms.
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