NewsAwareness
Stomach Cancer Awareness Month: Learning About a Cancer With Some Preventable Causes
Every November, Stomach Cancer Awareness Month highlights a cancer where certain risk factors, including an infection, can often be addressed. Here is what NCI says.
A plain-language summary based on public reporting and trusted sources, linked below.
Please note: this page is educational only — it is not medical advice, and it does not speculate about anyone’s health beyond reliable public reporting. For questions about your own health, talk with your healthcare team.
A cancer with a bacterial cause
Most cancers do not have an infection at the root of them. Stomach cancer, in a large share of cases, does.
That is what makes November's awareness month different from most. There is something concrete to do, and it involves a course of antibiotics rather than a scan.
The nonprofit No Stomach For Cancer championed the first official U.S. Stomach Cancer Awareness Month in 2010. It chose November on purpose. The month is built around food and family, which makes it a hard one for people living with a cancer of digestion, and for those living without a stomach at all.
Helicobacter pylori
NCI describes chronic infection of the stomach lining with Helicobacter pylori as a major risk factor for stomach cancer.
The bacterium spreads between people through direct contact with saliva, vomit or stool. Many people carry it for years with no symptoms at all. Some develop stomach ulcers, or an inflammation called atrophic gastritis.
The chain from there is slow. Atrophic gastritis can lead to steadily worse changes in the stomach lining. In some people that ends in stomach cancer, or in a gastric MALT lymphoma.
Here is the sentence that carries the whole awareness month. NCI states that treating H. pylori infections reduces the risk of these types of stomach cancer.
The infection raises risk mainly in the lower and middle stomach. Cancer in the upper stomach follows a different pattern. There the risk factors are obesity and acid reflux. Our page on H. pylori and cancer covers testing and treatment.
The rest of the risk picture
NCI groups the other factors.
Medical conditions: chronic atrophic gastritis. Also atrophic gastritis with intestinal metaplasia, where stomach lining cells are replaced by cells that normally line the gut. Then Epstein-Barr virus infection, pernicious anemia, obesity, and reflux disease.
Family and genetics: having a parent, sibling or child who has had stomach cancer. Several inherited syndromes also count. NCI names hereditary diffuse gastric cancer, Lynch syndrome, Li-Fraumeni syndrome, familial adenomatous polyposis and others. Risk in these families can be very high. Blood type A is on the list too.
Diet: low in fruits and vegetables, or high in salted, smoked or poorly preserved foods.
Tobacco: smokers have a higher risk than non-smokers. Smoking also makes treatment for H. pylori less effective, and stopping lowers stomach cancer risk over time. Our page on quitting smoking covers what helps.
Work: NCI lists the rubber and coal industries, and exposure to very high levels of radiation.
Who it affects
NCI notes that stomach cancer rates in the United States are higher among Black, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native people than among White people.
Men are nearly twice as likely as women to be diagnosed. Black men are nearly twice as likely as White men to die of it.
And rates have been rising in younger women in recent years, particularly among Hispanic women.
When to get checked
NCI is direct about the problem. Early stomach cancer usually has no symptoms, and symptoms usually begin after the cancer has spread.
When early symptoms do occur, NCI lists:
- Indigestion and stomach discomfort.
- A bloated feeling after eating.
- Mild nausea.
- Loss of appetite.
- Heartburn.
Every one of those is something most adults have had. That is exactly the difficulty, and it is why persistence matters more than severity. Indigestion that is new, that keeps coming back, or that does not settle with the usual remedies is worth an appointment.
Later symptoms are less ambiguous: blood in the stool, vomiting, unexplained weight loss, stomach pain, jaundice, a swollen abdomen from fluid, or trouble swallowing. These need seeing promptly.
There is no standard screening test for stomach cancer in the United States. People with an inherited syndrome such as hereditary diffuse gastric cancer follow separate surveillance, and sometimes preventive surgery, decided with a specialist team. Our page on stomach cancer symptoms goes through each sign.
The group picture
SEER figures describe the United States population, not any individual.
Five-year relative survival for stomach cancer is 39.8 percent for cases from 2016 to 2022. By stage it is 78.1 percent while confined to the stomach, 39.0 percent once it has reached nearby lymph nodes, and 8.1 percent once it has spread further.
Only 32 percent are found at that first stage. Thirty-five percent are already distant. That split, more than the biology, is what the gap between 78 and 8 percent reflects.
An estimated 31,510 new cases and 10,740 deaths are projected for 2026 by the American Cancer Society, whose counts SEER publishes. The median age at diagnosis is 68. Our page on stomach cancer covers types, staging and treatment.
What this does not mean
Carrying H. pylori does not mean cancer is coming. Most people who carry it never develop stomach cancer, and treating it lowers risk rather than removing it.
Nor does having none of these risk factors rule anything out. NCI puts it plainly. Many people with risk factors never get this cancer, and some people with none of them do.
The survival figures above blend tumors in different parts of the stomach, at every stage and every age. They describe a population, not a person.
The thing worth taking from November is narrower and more useful than any of that. If you have had ulcers, ongoing indigestion, or a close relative with stomach cancer, ask whether you should be tested for H. pylori. It is one of the few cancer risk factors that can simply be treated.
Sources
- No Stomach For Cancer, Stomach Cancer Awareness Month — https://nostomachforcancer.org/get-involved/stomach-cancer-awareness-month/
- NCI, Stomach Cancer Causes and Risk Factors — https://www.cancer.gov/types/stomach/patient/stomach-prevention-pdq
- NCI, Stomach Cancer Symptoms — https://www.cancer.gov/types/stomach/symptoms
- SEER Cancer Stat Facts, Stomach Cancer — https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/stomach.html
How this article was prepared
An AI-assisted editorial system helped prepare this page. No named medical reviewer has reviewed it unless one is listed.
The National Cancer Information Foundation publishes Cancer Explained. This page is for learning. It is not medical advice and does not suggest a test or treatment.
See an error, old source, or unclear wording? Tell us.
Know someone who needs this?
Plenty of people are looking for something like this and do not know where to start. If this would help a friend or someone you love, send it on — we have written an opening line so you do not have to stare at an empty message. You can change every word of it.
Your message is written and sent in your own email or messaging app — we never see who you send it to, and nothing is added to any list.
Put the story in context
Prevention, possible warning signs, screening, and diagnosis
This story relates to Stomach (gastric) cancer. The information below is general: it does not reveal anything else about a public person’s health, and not every point applies to every cancer. Personal advice depends on age, symptoms, family history, exposures, and medical history.
Prevention and risk reduction
Not every cancer can be prevented. Avoiding tobacco, protecting skin from ultraviolet radiation, limiting alcohol, staying active, and receiving recommended HPV or hepatitis B vaccination can lower the risk of certain cancers. A risk factor is not a prediction or a cause in one individual.
Symptoms and possible early signs
Possible signs vary and are often caused by conditions other than cancer. Changes worth discussing include a new lump, unexplained bleeding or weight loss, a persistent cough, lasting bowel or bladder changes, a changing skin spot, or symptoms that persist or worsen. Some early cancers cause no symptoms.
Screening and early detection
Screening looks for certain cancers before symptoms begin. Recommended tests exist only for some cancers and depend on age and risk. Screening can have benefits and harms; it is not the same as evaluating a new symptom, and there is no single routine scan or blood test that reliably screens for every cancer.
How cancer is diagnosed
Diagnosis may involve a history and exam, imaging, laboratory tests, and often a biopsy. Pathology can identify the cancer type and may test biomarkers that guide treatment. Symptoms, screening results, tumor markers, or online stories alone cannot confirm cancer.
Learn about this story’s cancer topic
A public story may encourage questions, but it should not be used to estimate your risk or choose testing. Contact a healthcare professional about a persistent or concerning change. Seek urgent care for severe or rapidly worsening symptoms.