Background and Purpose
The stomach cancer incidence rate in Korea is high compared to other counties, with men ranking second worldwide and women ranking the first. Stomach cancer is the most common cancer in Korea, ranking first in cancer incidence compared to the number of population, as well as a high 5-year survival rate of 77%. Despite this high survival rate, the 5-year survival rate of stage 4 gastric cancer with distant metastasis is as low as 10%, and chemotherapy or radiation treatment is used in the case of stage 2 or stage 3 advanced cancer because it recurs at a rate of 40 to 60%. Despite these high survival rates, the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation therapy to prolong life or mitigate symptoms has not been established, therefore most stomach cancer patients suffer from after effects and side effects of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. As the number of cancer patients and cancer survivors increases, the usage rate of oriental institutions is increasing to reduce the quality of life, alleviate side effects, and suppressing metastatic recurrence that Western medicine cannot solve. In the case of terminal cancer patients, the use of oriental medicine is increasing in order to extend survival time and improve quality of life. As the demand and expectations for oriental medicine rise evidence-based critical pathways have been requested, however, the absence of guidelines for treating stomach cancer that medical professionals can utilize at the clinic cites has been a problem. In this regard, we developed this clinical care guideline to help doctors and other medical personnel make final decisions by analyzing and synthesizing evidence through the Evidence-Based Medicine(EBM) methodology, reflecting the characteristics of the different stomach cancer groups available at the clinical site.
Overview of disease
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has defined stomach cancer as a malignant organism made up of abnormal cells that can occur in gastrointestinal tissue and spread or invade nearby tissues and spread through blood and lymphatic systems to other parts of the body. In the eighth edition of the KCD, stomach cancer is classified as malignant neoplasm in the stomach, mouth, esophagus and discretion in the stomach in the tenth edition of the ICD, it is classified as malignant neoplasm in the stomach Major symptoms of stomach cancers are indigestion,bloating after meals, mild nausea, loss of appetite, heartburn, vomiting, weight loss, abdominal pain, jaundice, borborygmus, and mild fatigue.Chinese medicine called cancer(岩, 癌), accumulation(積聚), mass(癥瘕), and abdominal mass(痃 癖). There is no expression of stomach cancer, but similar symptoms include nau- sea(反胃), stomach pain(胃脘痛), epigastric oppression(心下痞), and diaphragmat- ic syndrome(膈證). Among them, symptoms of early stomach cancer are similar to stomach pain(胃脘痛), and vomiting due to cardiac obstruction(賁門梗阻) ap- pears later as stomach cancer progress. Therefore, symptoms of advanced or late stomach cancer are similar to dysphagia(噎膈) and regurgitation(反胃). Oriental medicine believed that irregular diet or excessive anxiety caused the air to clump together and the walls to form stomach cancer. Although the gastric cancer is in the stomach, oriental medicine is closely related to the liver, so it is sometimes di- agnosed as liver discord. In addition, the diagnosis is divided into non-hazardous, endothelial, gastric insulation, and biliary condensation.
