Stomach cancer - endoscopy

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Hi there,

I am extremely concerned I may have advanced stomach cancer.

i have been experiencing a lot of symptoms over the past 6 months and unfortunately still havent got any answers.

i wanted to ask about endoscopies. I know I don’t have a tumor as such as I have had multiple scans including PET scan. My concern is for something called signet cell stomach cancer which as I understand it presents itself more as a layering of sheets rather than a tumor so is difficult to detect.

i haven’t had any rectal bleeding for a number of months (my main symptom) so when I had the endoscopy, as there wouid have been no blood wiukd this make it more difficult to find the cancer?

I am worried I left it too long between bleeding and endoscopy as I had only ever associated rental bieedikg with bowel cancer which I had already been checked for.

Any insight you can give wouid really help - thanks.

Sherrye - Macmillan 13 days ago

Hi HantsHog

Thanks for getting in touch and welcome to our online community. My name is Sherrye and I’m one of the Cancer Information Nurse Specialists on the Macmillan Support Line.

I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been experiencing symptoms over the last 6 months but following tests feel you haven’t had any answers.

At Macmillan Cancer Support if you are experiencing any new, worsening or changing symptom we always suggest reporting this to your team or GP for further assessment.

When experiencing symptoms associated with possible bowel cancers such as rectal bleeding, a standard test would be a colonoscopy to view the bowel, if you were not bleeding at the time of this investigation the visual field would have been clearer and this would be easier to see any areas of concern.

I see that you’ve also had a PET scan, this is another test that gives the team a clear vision of the area being scanned. It’s used to check the activity of the cells in an area of concern.

At Macmillan Cancer Support we are separate from the NHS so have no access to any of the NHS systems or anyone’s medical records, so we don’t have access to your scan reports.

It would be helpful to reach out to your GP again and have then go through the scan reports, confirm the areas that were looked at, discuss how you feel and discuss what can be done next to try and explain your symptoms. There could be a non-cancerous condition that can explain what’s going on.

I hope this information helps. Please feel free to get back in touch if you want more information or support.

Best wishes,

Sherrye H,

Cancer Information Nurse Specialist

You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm), send us an email or contact us through webchat.

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Stomach cancer - endoscopy