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Stomach Cancer Care

When you’re a patient at Swedish, we don’t just treat your stomach cancer – we treat you. We use the most advanced treatments to create a highly personalized care plan. We also support you and your loved ones with a full range of services throughout your entire cancer journey. The result is effective, whole-person care for your body, mind and spirit.

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Phone: 1-855-XCANCER (1-855-922-6237)

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Why Choose Swedish for Your Stomach Cancer Care?

At Swedish, we see the life in you. Together, let’s finish cancer – so you don’t have to miss any of life’s special moments.

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No two patients, or their treatment plans, are alike. This is why, at Swedish, we take a highly personalized approach to your stomach cancer care. You’ll experience this through our multidisciplinary tumor boards, where your oncology team collaborates with other cancer care experts about your specific diagnosis. We also offer a Molecular Tumor Board, where we evaluate your genomic and clinical information to find the best genetically matched treatment for you. Your oncology team will work with you directly to design a treatment plan that fits your personal needs. Why? Because we know this results in the best outcomes.

As a patient, you’ll be supported through your entire cancer journey by a multidisciplinary cancer care team. You’ll be treated by board-certified medical oncologists, gastroenterologists and radiation oncologists. If surgery is required, our world-class surgeons use the most advanced techniques. It’s a team-based approach to stomach cancer. Your care team may also include oncology nurse navigators, oncology nutritionists, pathologists and other cancer specialists. We also provide you and your family with a full range of support services well beyond conventional treatment, from genetic counseling and education to nutrition and pain management.

Learn more about the experts who make up our multidisciplinary cancer care teams.

Cancer doesn’t discriminate, but access to great stomach cancer care hasn’t always been the same for everyone. At Swedish, we are deeply committed to making sure every patient we treat has access to the best cancer care. We offer various location-specific services to help our patients receive equitable care, such as translation for non-English-speaking patients, telehealth and transportation assistance. We value, respect and support the racial, ethnic, religious, spiritual, gender, and sexual identities of each member of our diverse communities, and we welcome all patients, regardless of their ability to pay. We aim to make sure every patient is treated equally and with dignity – whoever you are, and wherever you’re at.

At any given time, the Swedish Cancer Institute offers patients more than 140 clinical-research studies involving most types of cancers. Clinical trials give patients access to promising new medications and procedures before they are widely available. Such trials are also the primary way that progress is made in finding better approaches to treatment and cure. Additionally, our physician specialists collaborate with other regional and national research groups, including Southwest Oncology Group, National Cancer Institute, Puget Sound Oncology Consortium and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

About Stomach Cancer

Stomach cancer, also called gastric cancer, is a type of gastrointestinal cancer that forms in the stomach’s inner lining. The expert oncology teams at Swedish use the most effective therapies to treat patients with every type of stomach cancer and its related conditions.

Testing and Diagnostics

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Diagnostic tools help our cancer clinicians determine which therapies will work best for each patient, based on many factors like cancer type and the genetic or molecular profile of the tumor. Your doctors will use multiple advanced diagnostic and prognostic tools to help design your individualized treatment plan, including:

  • Biopsy
  • Endoscopic ultrasound
  • Fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy
  • Genetics and genomics
  • MRI
  • PET/CT scan
  • Ultrasound
  • Upper endoscopy

Personalized Treatment for Stomach Cancer

We take a team approach to your stomach cancer treatment because we know this offers the best success in controlling and curing cancer. Your multidisciplinary cancer care team will work with you to design an individualized cancer care plan, from diagnosis to post-treatment support. We offer many different therapies across our Swedish locations. Depending on your condition, your personal care plan may include one or more of the following:

Systemic Therapies Surgical Therapies Radiation Therapies Additional Therapies
Systemic Therapies

Systemic therapies travel through the bloodstream and affect cells in other body parts. They are used for patients whose cancer has spread to other areas of the body or if there’s a high risk of spread. Sophisticated genetic analysis allows us to target therapies to specific DNA mutations that cause cancer cells to develop and grow. Systemic therapies include:

Biologic therapies are a type of drug treatment derived from living organisms such as proteins or yeasts. One type of biologic therapy is monoclonal antibodies. These are laboratory-produced agents that target and bind to biologic entities such as receptors on cancer cells.

Chemoradiotherapy combines the use of chemotherapy and radiation at the same time. When given together, the two treatments are more effective than when given in sequence. This approach is often used when a cancer is advanced but has not spread to distant parts of the body and therefore may respond to more intense therapy.

Chemotherapy is the systemic use of cytotoxic chemicals to kill cancer cells. Today there are many medications (e.g., biological medications, immune treatments, targeted therapies) that do not fit the classic definition of chemotherapy yet are often included in this category.

Clinical trials represent research protocols that include the use of new drugs or drug combinations in a specific clinical situation.

Immunotherapy uses drugs to allow the body’s own immune system to more effectively find and destroy cancer cells.

Molecularly targeted therapy is the use of drugs that are molecularly targeted at a genetic mutation that has allowed the cancer to grow. This therapy enables personalized treatments for patients who carry certain genetic mutations or abnormalities.

 

Surgical therapies involve an operation or procedure to remove cancer from the body. Surgery may be the main treatment for some invasive cancers, but it’s only one part of the entire treatment plan. Surgical therapies include:

Distal gastrectomy is surgical removal of cancer in the lower part of the stomach. Part of the small intestines may also be removed.

Regional nodal dissection, also referred to as regional lymphadenectomy, is the surgical removal of lymph nodes near a tumor. The nodes are then checked for the presence of cancer cells.

Subtotal or total gastrectomy is surgical removal of all or part of the stomach.

 

Radiation therapy uses high-energy radiation from a source like X-rays or photons to kill cancer cells or shrink tumors. It may be part of a treatment plan that also includes systemic therapies and/or surgery. Radiation is sometimes used to help ease a patient’s pain or discomfort. Radiation therapies include:

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) are advanced types of radiation therapies. IMRT uses advanced technology to manipulate the radiation beams to conform to the shape of a tumor. VMAT is a subtype of IMRT in which the machine actively delivers radiation beams while moving in an arc around the patient.

This method of radiation delivery offers next-generation capabilities. The arc-based therapy provided via VMAT delivers high doses of radiation to more focused areas, reducing side effects and the overall treatment time for the patient. This treatment is particularly effective at treating several types of cancer while at the same time reducing toxicity and harm to vital organs.

This procedure is one of several new ways to deliver radiation therapy. It requires a sophisticated facility and equipment, along with highly specialized physicians. It is available at some Swedish locations.

Surface-guided radiation therapy (SGRT/SIGRT) is an approach to radiation targeting that offers real-time beam guidance from face and body surface-recognition systems.

This treatment is particularly effective at treating several types of cancer while at the same time reducing toxicity and harm to vital organs, thus minimizing side effects.

This advanced procedure requires a sophisticated facility and equipment, along with highly specialized physicians. It is available at some Swedish locations.

Three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT) is a radiation planning and treatment technique in which three-dimensional (3D) imaging enables improved targeting for radiation treatment. 3D planning with CT imaging makes radiation treatment much more conformal, or tailored to the target.

 

Additional therapies may also be part of the treatment plan for a small number of patients. These may include:

Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemoperfusion (HIPEC) is a complex treatment in which heated chemotherapy is delivered into the abdomen through catheters following extensive surgical removal (debulking) of a tumor in the abdomen.

Some cancers can spread diffusely throughout the abdomen. By combining surgery with the direct application of chemotherapy, this two-step procedure is highly effective at treating cancers that have spread beyond their organ of origin.

This advanced procedure requires a sophisticated facility and equipment, along with highly specialized physicians. It is available at some Swedish locations.

Interventional radiology is an invasive procedure guided by radiologic imaging. This approach may be used to implant a port, or vascular access device, in order to obtain diagnostic material, remove fluid from the chest or abdomen, or deliver treatment locally.

Advanced Stomach Cancer Treatment: HIPEC

Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemoperfusion (HIPEC) at Swedish Cancer Institute

Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemoperfusion (HIPEC) is a complex treatment in which heated chemotherapy is delivered into the abdomen through catheters following extensive surgical removal (debulking) of a tumor in the abdomen. Some cancers can spread diffusely throughout the abdomen. By combining surgery with the direct application of chemotherapy, this two-step procedure is highly effective at treating cancers that have spread beyond their organ of origin.

Our surgical oncologists have many years of experience offering this technique to patients with cancer in the abdominal cavity. Swedish Cancer Institute remains the only provider of HIPEC services in Western Washington.

What are the advantages of HIPEC?

  • HIPEC utilizes a higher dose of chemotherapy solution to ultimately help control the spread of cancer in the abdomen.
  • Heat sensitizes cancer cells to chemotherapy.
  • HIPEC allows for a more focused treatment by “bathing” abdominal cancers in chemotherapy.

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Accreditations

We are proud to see our dedication to our cancer patients recognized by the most well-respected programs and institutions in the United States. Several of our Swedish locations have achieved the following accreditations:

Meet the Team

At Swedish, you'll have access to a vast network of dedicated and compassionate providers who offer personalized care by focusing on treatment, prevention and health education.

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Find Clinical Trials

Are you looking for a clinical trial for yourself or for a patient? We’d love to help you find one!

Learn More About Clinical Trials