Why did I get stomach cancer?

The most common type of stomach cancer is adenocarcinoma and most often there will be no family history of stomach cancer, nor any other substantial risk factor. Other rarer types of stomach cancer include gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) or lymphoma. In adenocarcinoma, at the fundamental level the cells lining the stomach have mutated and become uncontrolled in the way in which they divide to form new cells. This occurs at the DNA level inside a cell. The DNA may originally have had a propensity to mutate (such as when cancer ‘runs in families’) and/or suffer damage to them over time. In the lower part of the stomach it has a strong link to being caused by damage from the bacteria Helicobacter Pylori (H.Pylori), which also causes stomach ulcers. H.Pylori occurs more commonly in developing countries although it still occurs in Australia. People can have no symptoms or they may develop indigestion, pain in the top part of the belly or iron deficiency. In the top part of the stomach, stomach cancer is associated with being male, overweight, obesity and being Caucasian (note being associated with is not the same as being caused by).