PREVENTION OF GASTROINTESTINAL CANCER

Stomach and colon cancer are very common with increasingly younger ages of detection. Gastrointestinal symptoms often only appear when the disease is in its late stages, with a low chance of cure even with surgery and chemotherapy.

Gastroscopy and colonoscopy help detect precancerous lesions and identify early stage cancer (infancy without symptoms) to have an appropriate monitoring plan and possibly cure the disease completely.

I. WHEN SHOULD YOU BE SCREENED FOR DIGESTIVE TUBE CANCER?

- Screening endoscopy: from 40 years old and up even if there are no symptoms. The age for endoscopy can be younger if there is a family member with stomach or colon cancer, but a doctor's specific advice is needed.

- Endoscopy to diagnose the disease: when there are digestive symptoms (fullness, indigestion, difficulty swallowing, presternal pain, abdominal pain, prolonged diarrhea or constipation, bloody mucus in stool, vomiting blood, black stool, palpable abdominal mass, weight loss, anemia of unknown cause, etc.).

- Periodic endoscopy: diagnosed with Barrett's esophagus, atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia or gastric dysplasia (dysplasia), ulcerative colitis, colon polyps or post-surgery for stomach or colon cancer.

II. ADVANTAGES OF ENDOSCOPY UNDER ANAESTHETICS WITH NBI MACHINE (NARROW BAND IMAGING):

Gastrointestinal endoscopy is a fear and obsession of many patients because they often experience discomfort. But now there is a new technique that helps make endoscopy gentle, safe and more accurate, which is painless gastrointestinal endoscopy, using sedatives and pain relievers to help patients undergo endoscopy gently, gently, painlessly and more comfortably during endoscopy. You will sleep throughout the endoscopy. The short pre-anesthesia time depends on the endoscopy time, you will wake up immediately after the endoscopy is finished, without harming your health.

NBI endoscopy is used to diagnose gastrointestinal cancer (esophagus - stomach - colon) in the early or very early stages, when only a few small clusters of cancer cells appear, localized very shallowly on the surface of the gastrointestinal tract. People with cancer at this stage only need to undergo flexible endoscopy, combined with interventional treatment to remove the damaged gastrointestinal mucosa to completely cure the disease.

High-resolution endoscopy system magnifies small lesions combined with contrast staining to identify precancerous gastric lesions (mucosal atrophy, intestinal metaplasia, dysplasia and early stage cancer).

Through endoscopy, in addition to diagnosing lesions by biopsy, whole polyp biopsy is also performed to prevent cancer. The larger the polyp, the higher the chance of developing into cancer.

Experienced team of doctors, endoscopy system with electronic staining function, combined with magnification of small lesions to identify cases of dysplasia and early stage cancer.

Strict sterilization process meets international standards with automatic endoscope washing system

Early detection of stomach cancer by NBI endoscopy and staining

Polyps progress to colorectal cancer

Stages of development of polyps that have the risk of causing cancer

The gastrointestinal biopsy samples are sent to Dai Phuoc Pathology-Cytology Center with modern equipment, the results will be read by leading Pathology expert: Associate
Professor, Doctor, Doctor Ngo Quoc Dat, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City, analyzed under a microscope to determine the presence of cancer cells or not. This is the gold standard to help determine whether the gastrointestinal lesion is benign or malignant.

Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Quoc Dat, Deputy Dean of Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City

III. METHODS TO PREVENT THE RISK OF DIGESTIVE TUBE CANCER:

- Eat foods high in fiber such as green vegetables, fruits, and low in meat, fish, and fat.

- Do not eat fried foods, greasy foods, grilled foods or bacon.

- Limit alcohol consumption and do not smoke. Drink plenty of water every day (2-3 liters/day).

- Effective treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease and eradication of Helicobacter Pylori bacteria when indicated.

- Exercise, walk at least 30 minutes/day, at least 5 days a week.

- Regular health check-ups and immediate check-ups when there are signs suggesting digestive tract cancer.

- Regular endoscopy screening when you are at high risk of digestive cancer.

A Gastroenterologist will advise and monitor treatment.

In short, gastrointestinal diseases can be cured if detected early, eradicating HP , treating chronic inflammation, removing polyps completely to prevent cancer , and regular endoscopy are the most effective methods of cancer prevention and treatment.